WASHINGTON, D.C., \u2014 The U.S. House on Tuesday passed the Sunshine Protection Act, a bill introduced by Florida Congressman Vern Buchanan that would make daylight saving time permanent if it becomes law.<\/p>\n
The bill passed 308-117, with six members not voting. A Senate version has been introduced by Florida Sen. Rick Scott, but there are no upcoming actions listed for that bill.<\/p>\n
Daylight saving time is currently in effect. Under the current system, clocks return to standard time in November.<\/p>\n
If the bill becomes law, Spectrum News meteorologists say Tampa Bay would see nearly three months of sunrises after 8 a.m. The earliest sunset would be 6:33 p.m.<\/p>\n
Opponents of permanent daylight saving time argue the country should instead move to permanent standard time. Dr. Karin Johnson, a sleep medicine specialist and vice president of the nonprofit Save Standard Time, said she was saddened to see Congress move in that direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cPermanent daylight saving time has been tried twice before in the U.S. Last time, in the \u201970s, it lasted four months,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Save Standard Time advocates for permanent standard time, saying it would lead to better health and safety outcomes.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople wouldn\u2019t have to do anything at all,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThey would just use the power of the sun to naturally improve their sleep, and sleep is just so foundational for our health.\u201d<\/p>\n
University of Tampa political science professor Holley Tankersley said it is not unusual to see legislation focused on daylight saving time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not uncommon to see legislation like this,\u201d Tankersley said.<\/p>\n
Tankersley said daylight saving bills were also considered by Congress in 2018, 2022 and 2025. She said the issue has continued to divide lawmakers and the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some constituencies that really love daylight saving time, and there\u2019s some constituencies that really would prefer standard time,\u201d Tankersley said. \u201cSo, that\u2019s why these kinds of bills have failed to pass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buchanan celebrated the bill\u2019s passage in the House, calling it \u201ccommonsense legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPermanent daylight saving time will improve public safety, promote healthier and more active lifestyles and give families more daylight to enjoy after work and school,\u201d Buchanan said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, D.C., \u2014 The U.S. House on Tuesday passed the Sunshine Protection Act, a bill introduced by Florida…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1011,274,1190,115,2718,135,137,136,278,835],"class_list":["post-340452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-human-interest","tag-app-top-stories","tag-human-interest","tag-news","tag-sarah-blazonis","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}