Sunshine Protection Act

Long title	An Act to make daylight saving time permanent, and for other purposes.
Announced in	the118th United States Congress
Sponsored by	Marco Rubio (R–FL),Vern Buchanan (R–FL)
Number of co-sponsors	31 (House), 18 (Senate)
Codification
Acts affected	Uniform Time Act
Legislative history
Introduced in the 115th Congress's Senate asS. 2537 byMarco Rubio (R–FL) on March 12, 2018 Committee consideration bySenate Commerce, Science, and Transportation,House Committee on Energy and Commerce Passed the 117th Congress's Senate on March 15, 2022 (byunanimous consent)

TheSunshine Protection Act is a proposedUnited States federal law that would makeU.S. daylight saving time permanent, meaning the time would no longer change twice per year.^[1][2]The bill has been proposed during several sessions of Congress. In 2022, the Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent, although several senators stated later that they would have objected if they had known that the bill could pass. No iteration of the bill has passed the House.

Time zones were firstintroduced in the United States in 1883 by railroad companies.^[3] In 1918, they were codified into federal law by theStandard Time Act, which also included a provision for nationwidedaylight saving time modeled after European laws designed to save energy duringWorld War I, but that component was repealed a year later due to protests by farmers.^[3] Many states subsequently introduced daylight saving time, and in 1966, theUniform Time Act standardized the dates when it begins and ends.^[3] Hawaii, most of Arizona, and the U.S. territories haveopted to observe permanent standard time,^[4] but the Uniform Time Act forbids observation of permanent daylight saving time.^[3]

TheEmergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act enacted year-round daylight saving time for a year-and-a-half-long experiment from January 6, 1974, to April 7, 1975, but Congress later ended the experiment early on October 27, 1974, and did not make it permanent^[5] due to unfavorable public opinion, especially regarding concerns about children walking to school and waiting for school buses on dark winter mornings.^[6][7]

In the late 2010s, resolutions were passed in more than 30 states advocating for the federal government to abolish the annual transitions.^[8]

The Sunshine Protection Act would establish apermanent daylight saving time in the U.S., leading to later sunrises and sunsets during the four months in which most of the U.S. currently observes standard time, resulting in less sunlight in the morning hours and more sunlight in the evening ones. It would not mandate that states and territories that observe permanent standard time (American Samoa, most of Arizona, Guam, Hawaii, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) switch to permanent daylight saving time.^[9]

The Sunshine Protection Act was first introduced in 2018 by U.S. senatorMarco Rubio (R‑FL), modeled after a 2018 Florida bill of the same name.[10] U.S. presidentDonald Trump tweeted that he would be willing to sign it,^[11] but it failed to advance.^[10] A reintroduction in 2019 byVern Buchanan (R‑FL 16th) similarly failed.[10]

The 2021 iteration was filed in theU.S. House of Representatives by Buchanan on January 4, 2021,^[2] and in theU.S. Senate by Rubio on March 9, 2021. The bill received bipartisan support, and was cosponsored in the Senate byJames Lankford (R‑OK),Roy Blunt (R‑MO),Sheldon Whitehouse (D‑RI),Ron Wyden, (D‑OR);Cindy Hyde-Smith, (R‑MS),Rick Scott (R‑FL), andEd Markey (D‑MA).[9] It passed the Senate byunanimous consent on March 15, 2022.^[12] Two days later,BuzzFeed News reported that many senators were not aware that a request had been made for the bill to pass via unanimous consent and were not ready to raise an objection. Rubio's office had notified every other senator's office of the request; however, it is a frequent occurrence for legislative staff to "vet the request" themselves to "decide if an issue is too benign or obviously doomed to bother their boss with."BuzzFeed identifiedTom Cotton (R‑AR) as a senator who, according to a member of his staff, was vehemently opposed to the bill and would have objected to its passage had he been informed of it.[13]^[14] Upon being passed by the Senate, the bill faced uncertain prospects in the House.^[15][16] Ultimately, the 117th Congress ended without the House voting on the bill.^[17]

As of December 15, 2025^[update], the full history is as follows:

Numerous polls have found that most Americans believe that a time should be fixed and permanent—as many as 75% favor no longer changing clocks twice per year.^[18] One of the most common observations among researchers of varying backgrounds is that the change itself causes most of the negative effects, more so than either standard time or daylight saving time.^[1] Researchers have observed numerous ill effects of the annual transitions, including reduced worker productivity, increasedheart attacks andstrokes, increasedmedical errors,^[19] and increasedtraffic incidents.^[3]

The debate over the bill mainly concerns whether it is better to have more sunlight in the morning or the evening. A 2023 YouGov poll found that 62% of Americans would prefer to stop switching clocks, and among them half supported permanent daylight time, 31% were in favor of permanent standard time, and 19% had no preference or were not sure.^[20][21]

Opponents of the Sunshine Protection Act argue permanent standard time would be more beneficial to health and human welfare.^[22][23] Numerous health specialists, safety experts, and research societies consider permanent standard time better for health, safety, schools, and the economy.^[24][25][26] However, the magnitude of effect in either direction is disputed.^[27] This happens partly because standard time aligns with the naturalcircadian cycle, whereas daylight saving time is an hour ahead. Furthermore, the majority of land within each American time zone is skewed westward, creating sunrises and sunsets that are both artificially late even without daylight saving time. (There are exceptions, such as Long Island and the New England states). It is hypothesized closer harmony between standard time and biology contributes to safer morning commutes,^[24][28] improved student welfare,^[29][30] practicability of certain religious practices (such as inOrthodox Judaism andIslam),^[31] increased exposure to healthy morning sunlight,^[25] and higher productivity and wages.^[32]

However, advocates of permanent daylight saving time argue it has its own benefits^[33] including decreased crime,^[34] less frequent traffic incidents, longer evening outdoor recreation and decreased prevalence ofseasonal depression.^[35][36]

Research is unclear about which time setting conserves more energy.^[3][37]

In 2025, a Stanford study compared the year-long circadian health impact of permanent standard time, permanent daylight saving time, and biannually switching in the continental U.S. using models of the human circadian rhythm and health data from the CDC Places dataset. Researchers found that switching to permanent standard time was predicted to reduce cases of obesity by 2.6 million cases and stroke by 300,000 cases. Permanent daylight saving time also reduced cases but to a lesser extent.^[38] In interviews, the authors caution that this work is from a circadian health perspective and that other factors should be considered in policy decisions such as economic and safety impacts of time policy.

• Current House Version
• Current Senate Version
• Advocacy Site

• Daylight saving time in the United States
• Proposed legislation of the 115th United States Congress
• Proposed legislation of the 116th United States Congress
• Proposed legislation of the 117th United States Congress
• Proposed legislation of the 118th United States Congress
• Proposed legislation of the 119th United States Congress
• Marco Rubio
• Ron Wyden

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