The U.S Senate passed a measure on Tuesday that would make daylight savings permanent across the nation.
The Sunshine Protection Act passed the chamber by unanimous consent. The bill, which has bipartisan backing, would still need to pass the House and be signed by President Joe Biden to become law.
There will be no more “falling back” every year in the fall if the measure clears Congress and becomes signed into law.
The lead sponsor of the proposal Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has promoted the many benefits to making daylight savings time permanent, such as reduced seasonal affective disorder in the late fall and early winter to more daylight for school sports.
"You'll see it's an eclectic collection of members of the United States Senate in favor of what we've just done here in the Senate, and that's to pass a bill to make Daylight Savings Time permanent," said Rubio in remarks on the Senate floor. "Just this past weekend, we all went through that biannual ritual of changing the clock back and forth and the disruption that comes with it. And one has to ask themselves after a while why do we keep doing it?"
If the Sunshine Protection Act passes and becomes law, the sun will set at 5:31 in late December instead of 4:31 p.m. This would give people more daylight in the afternoon.
"If we can get this passed, we don't have to keep doing this stupidity anymore," Rubio.
Rubio noted the Sunshine Protection Act would not take effect until next year if signed into law.
“I think it is important to delay it until Nov. 20, 2023, because airlines and other transportation has built out a schedule and they asked for a few months to make the adjustment,” he said.
Americans have expressed disfavor of the annual shift between Standard Time, which aims to maximize daylight during winter mornings, and Daylight Saving Time (DST) which delays sunset by an hour during spring, summer, and fall.
This practice is observed in every state except Hawaii and Arizona.
This time shift has been proven by researchers to have contributed to the rise of heart attacks, strokes, and sleep deprivation in the days after the clock moves forward every second Sunday of March.
According to the Congressional Research Service, Daylight Saving Time was first adopted in 1918 to conserve fuel during World War 1, but studies have found little impact on energy savings from the shift.
Congress attempted a year-round Daylight Savings Time in 1974 when there was a spike in oil prices. The effort was dropped that fall.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 18 states have passed laws to provide a year-round DST if Congress takes action.
