The U.S. House of Representatives last week passed the Sunshine Protection Act by a vote of 308 to 117, aimed at making daylight saving time permanent across the country.
However, the bill faces major resistance in the Senate, where opposition is largely divided along geographic lines.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) acknowledged the bill’s bleak outlook: “Have you ever seen an issue that people are more passionate about and divides the country more by region than this one?”
A major opponent, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), said he would do everything in his power to prevent the Sunshine Protection Act from becoming law by unanimous consent. Cotton said permanent daylight saving time means later sunrise times in northern and Midwestern states during the winter.
“For many Arkansans, permanent daylight saving time would mean the sun wouldn’t rise until after 8 a.m., or even 8:30 a.m., in the dead of winter,” Cotton said.
“Three months a year, children in towns like Bentonville, Fayetteville and Fort Smith started school before the sun,” he added.
Debate over the law created a sharp geographic divide, with southern states favoring more evening daylight and northern and Midwestern states opposing the move.
Under the law, cities such as Pierre, SD, and South Bend, Indiana, will not see sunrise until after 9 a.m. on certain winter days. In Minnesota, the latest sunrise would be around 8:51 a.m.
Congress attempted to establish permanent daylight saving time in the 1970s, during the administration of President Richard Nixon, but the proposal proved so controversial that it had to be withdrawn just 10 months later.
Additionally, the Senate’s busy agenda will likely make passing the law even more difficult. The House has other issues on its agenda, including nominations, FISA reauthorization and sanctions against Russia. With this in mind, the Sunshine Protection Act may never be passed before the August holiday.
President Trump, on the other hand, would favor eliminating the practice of time change.
