Summer time is about to enter the lives of Americans, signaling longer days ahead. However, polls show that the majority of people hope to end the practice of adjusting the clocks twice a year. The debate over whether to permanently implement Daylight Saving Time or Standard Time has once again garnered attention.
The implementation of Daylight Saving Time has always been controversial, with many Americans disliking the biannual time changes. Several studies have also shown that the time adjustments can have more negative impacts on human health than benefits. Furthermore, the debate over whether Daylight Saving Time actually saves energy remains inconclusive. Therefore, abolishing or making Daylight Saving Time permanent has been a topic of ongoing discussion.
In the United States, Daylight Saving Time begins on the second Sunday of March and ends on the first Sunday of November. This year, Daylight Saving Time begins on March 9th.
In December last year, billionaire Elon Musk, who was appointed to lead the Government Efficiency Department, called for the abolition of Daylight Saving Time. President Trump subsequently expressed support for eliminating this “inconvenient” and “costly” practice.
A YouGov poll in March 2023 found that 62% of Americans hope to end the practice of clock adjustments, but there is almost no consensus on what the next step should be. Half of the respondents expressed a desire for year-round Daylight Saving Time, slightly fewer than a third preferred to permanently implement Standard Time (from November to March), while the rest were uncertain or had no opinion. In May 2024, another YouGov poll found that Americans were leaning towards Daylight Saving Time: 58% of Democrats and 63% of Republicans supported making Daylight Saving Time permanent.
Several states and federal lawmakers also agree with this stance. Over ten states have passed legislation or resolutions to switch to permanent Daylight Saving Time, but action from Congress is still required. A few states are considering making Standard Time permanent, a proposition supported by health experts.
Alaina Tiani, a clinical health psychologist specializing in behavioral sleep medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Sleep Disorders Center, emphasized that making Standard Time permanent is “undoubtedly” the healthiest choice, “if you believe in science.”
She explained, “Receiving more light in the early mornings is fundamentally more beneficial for our body rhythms than receiving light during Daylight Saving Time and later in the evenings.”
When clocks are turned back an hour every November, the sunrise time advances by an hour. For some parts of the United States, this means sunrise shifts from 7 a.m. to 6 a.m. If Daylight Saving Time is observed year-round in the U.S., sunrise times would be significantly later, nearing close to 9 a.m. in some areas.
Another potential benefit of making Standard Time permanent is a decrease in suicide rates.
A study found that switching to permanent Standard Time could prevent hundreds to thousands of suicides annually.
In recent years, several bills have been proposed in Congress to establish permanent Daylight Saving Time (though health experts believe that making Standard Time permanent would be better for Americans). A bill introduced by current Secretary of State Rubio when he was a senator garnered bipartisan support but ultimately stalled.
Senator Rick Scott and Rep. Vern Buchanan have introduced new versions of the Rubio bill in both the Senate and House. As of February 6th, Buchanan’s bill has been signed by over ten Republicans and has been submitted to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Scott’s bill has 16 bipartisan cosponsors and has been submitted to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
In a statement released in January, Scott said, “I often hear Americans say they are tired of changing the clocks twice a year—it’s an unnecessary practice with decades of history that, instead of benefiting their families, only causes them trouble.”
“I am pleased to see President Trump back in the White House and supporting the Lock the Clock initiative, so we can move forward with this common-sense change, simplifying and benefiting the lives of American families,” he added.
Many states have also passed legislation calling for an end to the annual time change.
Federal Representative Celeste Maloy recently introduced a bill allowing states to adhere to Daylight Saving Time year-round. The bill has been submitted to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Since its initial trial in 1918, Daylight Saving Time has been introduced across almost all regions of the U.S. since the 1960s. In 1973, during an energy crisis, then-President Nixon signed an emergency Daylight Saving Time bill into law. Although initially popular year-round Daylight Saving Time faced safety issues and public opinion changed quickly. In 1974, the U.S. returned to the pattern known today.
Since 2015, about 30 states have proposed legislation to end the biannual time changes, with some states suggesting that termination of the time switches would only occur if neighboring states followed suit.