Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
United States Government

Is America Closer to Ending Daylight Saving Time? (kcra.com) 141

Posted by EditorDavid from the springing-forward dept.
A proposal to make daylight saving time permanent has advanced in the U.S. House of Representative, reports California news station KCRA: A proposal to make daylight saving time permanent has advanced in the House, reigniting an age-old American debate around the twice-annual clock changes. And this time, the proposal has the president's backing. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will work "very hard" to sign the so-called Sunshine Protection Act into law after the House Energy and Commerce Committee overwhelmingly approved the bill by a 48-1 vote.

The bill still needs to pass the full U.S. House, and then the U.S. Senate would consider taking up the measure.
The bill would allow U.S states to decide whether to "exempt themselves" from Daylight Saving Time, according to the article.

The bill's sponsor described the annual clock-switching as "inconvenient, unnecessary, and out of step with the needs of today's families and economy," while finally creating a permanent Daylight Saving would bring "more usable daylight hours throughout the year."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Is America Closer to Ending Daylight Saving Time? More

Is America Closer to Ending Daylight Saving Time?

Comments Filter:

  • This would be a disaster! (Score:5, Funny)

    by VAXcat ( 674775 ) on Saturday May 23, 2026 @06:40PM (#66157616)
    With climate change already making everything hotter, adding an hour of daylight to every day will just make things hotter still! I know my lawn will never make it through all that extra daylight.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by drnb ( 2434720 )

      With climate change already making everything hotter, adding an hour of daylight to every day will just make things hotter still! I know my lawn will never make it through all that extra daylight.

      Perhaps some AI driven watering and wind fans (for a light breeze across the lawn) could help.

    • > With climate change already making everything hotter, adding an hour of daylight to every day will just make things hotter still! I know my lawn will never make it through all that extra daylight.

      LMAO i have never laughed so hard at a comment before left on this forum.

      a timezone change does not ADD (or remove) an hour of daylight. it's the same planet, it will spin the same every day, and thus the same amount of light LOL.your lawn won't know any difference!

  • Think of the school children (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bosef1 ( 208943 ) on Saturday May 23, 2026 @06:59PM (#66157640)

    I would be interesting in hearing from people who _want_ the twice-annual clock change. Why do you want that? How does it benefit you?

    I may just be confused, but I thought one of the primary advocates for the clock shift was parents with school-age children. Shifting the clocks helped prevent the children from having wait for the bus in the dark, or walk home in the dark, something like that. But that may be me mis-remembering something I heard a while ago.

    My preference would be year-round Standard time (noon is noon). My second preference would be year-round Daylight Saving. I dislike the twice-annual clock change, find it of no value, and support eliminating it.

    • Re:Think of the school children (Score:5, Insightful)

      by timepilot ( 116247 ) on Saturday May 23, 2026 @07:18PM (#66157656)

      Every time I hear the "think of the children" argument against year-round DST, I ask myself why schools don't just start an hour later instead of dragging the rest of the world along with them. Year round DST FTW.

      • If people really cared about the kids above all, they wouldn't make the junior high and high school students go in so early - they'd raise taxes on themselves to buy more busses and pay for more drivers so that the schools all start and end at the same time.

        • That might be true if the reason was insufficient buses to get them all to school and back home at the same time, but it's not. If that were he reason, Junior High and High School would end an hour earlier than they do. The reason they start earlier is to make their school day one hour longer than Elementary School. And. the last time it was tried, it was so hated that it didn't even last one full year. Why do you think it would be different now?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by sjames ( 1099 )

          Teens in particular are naturally shifted to later sleep and waking. Thinking back, I don't have much memory at all of high school before 2nd period. Not surprising, I was on my feet but still practically sleeping.

        • The problem with the districts here is that they can't even find drivers to fill out their current positions. Routes for each driver were getting longer and buses were arriving late at school regularly. I was hearing a lot about this concurrent with the Covid lockdowns and "driver shortage" in trucking. Not sure if the situation or pay has improved since then.

          Growing up, the wife at my neighbor's house was a school bus driver. She'd do her morning routes, be home midday doing housewifey things, then do her

          • I don't know how much you'd have to pay me to be a school bus driver, but it's definitely more then they do get paid. No thank you. Not for today's miserable children.

      • Re:Think of the school children (Score:5, Insightful)

        by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Saturday May 23, 2026 @08:58PM (#66157794)

        I ask myself why schools don't just start an hour later

        Because parents have to go to work, and after-school programs have a set schedule.

        Of course, employers and after-school programs could also adjust their start times for the seasons, and we could agree to switch those start times on the same day.

        But that's just reimplementing DST.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by msauve ( 701917 )
      >I would be interesting in hearing from people who _want_ the twice-annual clock change.

      I don't think that's it. It's whether we should stick to a single "time." The US tried year-round DST back in the '70's. It was quickly repealed. Because it's idiocy. For centuries (millenia?), noon was when the sun was highest. Business/working hours were made around that simple fact. In the 1800's, the railroads created "standard time", with timezones, which made scheduling vastly easier because they didn't have t

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ogive17 ( 691899 )
      My son still had to wait for the bus in the dark in the winter, just depends on if you live on the eastern or western part of the time zone.

      I'd prefer permanent daylight savings because I'd rather have that extra hour of light in the evening.. but simply want the madness to end.

      • Friend, I see that you're fed up with the madness. It's tough to know that the world isn't quite as it's portrayed to be! It's tough to raise kids knowing that things could be so much better! Don't feel alone! There are many of us in the shadows who are fed up with these lies.

        We all know the drill: The Earth is round and the Sun is in control of daylight, but not everybody gets the same amount at the same time. The capitalist politicians are just trying to optimize it for everybody, by giving out time to e

    • Shifting the clocks helped prevent the children from having wait for the bus in the dark, or walk home in the dark, something like that. But that may be me mis-remembering something I heard a while ago.

      Yeah that's a problem, for people raising soft coddled little precious brat children who are unprepared for a world where the sun actually rises and sets and are afraid of the dark.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by caseih ( 160668 )

      You misremember. It's an argument that many have for abandoning DST altogether and sticking with standard, sane time zone hours, not keeping DST

      DST year round in northern states (or countries) would probably mean schools would have to adjust their schedules in winter, starting later, and running later.

      Here in Alberta we have a premier who fancies herself as a donald trump sort of leader (she's a stable genius), so she got her party to pass a law to make DST year round here, never mind that only a few short

      • Honestly the time change has never bothered me. I haven't really noticed it in decades. Laptop, tablet, cell phone time all change automatically and alarms ring when they should. If people stopped thinking so much about the time change and using it as an excuse for their ills, it would affect their health less.

        I guess a lot of folks here are severely impaired by this minor tweak.

    • That is the 'blah, blah...you...blah...\argument.

      There are systems in your society and laws in your country that are not happy when the DST is not enforced. I believe that in the US, bank transactions are legally not allowed to take more than 200 milliseconds (from coast to coast or everything in between). You think that will go smoothly if every state is allowed to determine if DST is enforced or not?

      Lots of automatic alarms in buildings are also affected. As well as police- and fire-departments. And who k

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by caseih ( 160668 )

        Why do you think time zones have anything to do with electric banking transactions?

        But yes you're right about infrastructure such as alarms. But we've already changed the DST start and end dates several times and every thing seems to have worked out. So dropping DST entirely, or sticking with DST entirely would be work fine I think.

        I agree about uniformity across the nation being important.

    • If you look at the actual data from the 1974 experiment staying on DST all winter, those who talk about the dangers to children, cherry-pick the data. Florida, for example, had 8 deaths that year, compared to 2 the year before. Sounds awful, right? So why aren't nationwide numbers cited more often? Well, because the nationwide numbers did not correlate with Florida's experience.

      The fact is, children get on school buses in the dark all over the country, all winter. Extending the number of in-the-dark boardin

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sjames ( 1099 )

      It was mostly people in northern states in the darkest days of winter.

      I was in 2nd grade in the southern U.S. the year Nixon had us stay on DST for a while. My friends and I really enjoyed the change. It was dark(-ish) when we walked to the bus stop, but we got to take flashlights to school (much more exciting when you're 7 years old!).

    • I really don't understand all the moaning and groaning about daylight saving time. People naturally wake up earlier in the summer and later in the winter, and DST is the most straightforward way to adapt our work schedule to that. We get 6 months of better sleep/work alignment in exchange for adjusting our sleep schedule by an hour twice a year. It's a big reward for not much effort, especially considering most of us adjust our sleep schedule ant the start and end of every weekend anyway, i.e., around 100 t

      • Who wants to get up two hours before dawn in the winter? Not me! Who wants to get up two hours after dawn in the summer? Not me!

        This is just like the people who stop taking their meds because they feel healthy. Get over it!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dwywit ( 1109409 )

        Why shouldn't our work schedules adapt, instead of us adapting to work schedules?

        If I want to enjoy the extra evening/twilight hours in summer for exercise, BBQ, or whatever, then why shouldn't I be able to start work an hour earlier and finish an hour earlier? I could get to work an hour before customers or other workers arrive and get my paperwork done without being interrupted.

        It's possible to stagger start and finish times so someone is at work to deal with customers at all hours. Offer an earlier start

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by theCoder ( 23772 )

      DST works by tricking people to wake up and get to their daily activities an hour earlier than they normally would. And it is sold as "giving" people an hour extra in the evening. They could do that without changing their clocks by just waking up at 5 instead of 6 and working 7-4 instead of 8-5, but most people don't want to wake up earlier. So we use DST to trick them into doing it.

      Doing DST as a whole society also helps for people who don't have flexible hours for their daytime activities.

      But i realize

    • You don't need to mess with the clock to achieve those so called advantages. One can just set up 2 timetables, one for summer and one for winter. Then let the clock run the same around the year.

      The decision to mess with the clock instead of issuing 2 timetables is an insult to everyone's intelligence. Sadly there are many people too stupid to feel the insult.

    • I wonâ(TM)t lie, this is a terrible reason to make us suffer through the damned clock changes. Parents should be parents and deal with their kids start time regardless of the clock. I donâ(TM)t care which time standard we choose, although I prefer DST, we need to end the clock changes and stick with one of the two.

    • I would be interesting in hearing from people who _want_ the twice-annual clock change.

      I really don't care, but I love to see the passion and exhaustion on this topic. I do prefer the change. It normalizes daylight clock hours with how we operate. It's an annoyance once a year from standard to daylight (the 23 hour day). The other side is a little perk.

      I laugh at the angst of all the people that seem to die unnecessarily twice a year because this happens. If you are at risk, for the love of God, don't fly horizontal patterns. The pain of going from PT to ET? Awful! Actually, no, it's not a bi

  • The short answer is: no (Score:3)

    by rufey ( 683902 ) on Saturday May 23, 2026 @07:27PM (#66157670)

    We've been here before. I'm very doubtful that this will get done and we'll be changing the clocks twice a year for the forseeable future. The reason? It will come down to quibbling about which time to make permanent. You see, at least from those who discuss this issue, it seems that it is far more important for them to remain on summer time, and if they can't, then they are okay with changing the clocks twice a year. More on that in a moment.

    For those who are not aware, any state can opt out of the twice-yearly clock changing right now. The only reason why no one has is because you can only opt out of Daylight Saving Time, so your state would have to be like Arizona and be on standard time year round. Doesn't require neighboring states to join in or any other theatrics other than telling the US Government that you opt out of DST. Your state could stop changing the clocks this fall. However, everyone will be up in arms because it will be standard time, not summer time, which is why it has only happened with two states (Arizona and Hawaii).

    The issue is it seems no one wants to stop the clock changing unless we stay on summer time year round. So it seems its vastly more important for people to be on summer time year round than it is to stop changing the clocks twice yearly. I'm in the other camp. I want to stop changing the clocks regardless of what we end up. I do prefer standard time, but could live with summer time if it means we stop changing the clocks. Just pick one and stop the madness. There are pros and cons to both. Just pick one, but don't make it the thing that will kill the whole effort to stop changing the clocks. In other words, if it came to be that we'd stop changing the clocks but we'd have to be on standard time, it would never pass because enough people in places of influence will not have it. It must be summer time year round, or change clocks twice a year. Now I do get it that this is exactly what this effort is this time around - remain on summer time year round. I support it 100% because I want to stop changing the clocks. And vice versa - there is probably enough vocal support for standard time - either we go on standard time year round or keep changing the clocks twice a year. This is why this will not pass.

    I will say that I expect many people who want summer time year round will change their mind after being on it a full year and having to go through the winter with it, especially if they are in the northern latitudes. I would expect the same behavior for standard time, though not as much. And on that note.....

    And finally, the US has gone onto summer time year round before. Didn't last very long. From Google AI:

    The 1974 Permanent DST Experiment: During the 1970s energy crisis, the U.S. enacted year-round DST. It was immensely unpopular, largely because children were walking or waiting for the school bus in the dark during cold winter mornings. The law was retracted in the fall of 1974

    • The 1974 Permanent DST Experiment: During the 1970s energy crisis, the U.S. enacted year-round DST. It was immensely unpopular, largely because children were walking or waiting for the school bus in the dark during cold winter mornings. The law was retracted in the fall of 1974

      That was in 1974, when many/most children took the school bus. Now (your location obviously will vary) a lot more parents drive their kids to school and pick them up (to go to some activity), so it is likely the push-back would be substantially muted. I live next to an elementary school, and if I happen to be walking past at the time the school day ends the number of children getting into an adults car is far larger than the few getting on the bus (it is actually somewhat annoying, since the waiting cars

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by evanh ( 627108 )

        I'd put that behaviour squarely in the "keeping up with the Jones'" camp. Get-ahead syndrome. Snobbishness even.

        The children are missing out on valuable exercise.

    • Thank you! I came here to point out that allowing states to exempt themselves from Daylight Savings Time is absolutely NOT what this is about. That would, as you say, put them on legitimate solar time year round.

      I for one would vastly prefer that. Let businesses and agencies set the hours that work for them and their customers. But make them do that themselves, instead of asking government to change the clocks and force everyone by default.

      But in our post-truth, post-reality world, this is how things are

      • And from TFA:

        It would allow states to exempt themselves from the twice-yearly time change by permanently advancing the nationâ(TM)s clocks by one hour. States would be able to opt out of the change.

        So would states be able to opt out of both Permanent Daylight Savings and yearly temporary DST?

  • Just to clarify (Score:3)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Saturday May 23, 2026 @07:38PM (#66157696)

    The actual quote from TFA is,

    Trump: "I am going to work very hard to see The Sunshine Protection Act signed into Law. ..."

    Which is an odd way to phrase it given that he will (presumably) be the one signing it, and, to be honest, conjurers up several potential jokes -- about him and working hard (vs. hardly working), poor eyesight/health, someone else signing it -- that, to be fair, I just won't make. :-)

    Also, it's a really stupid name for the Bill. If he has any sense of humor, when signing it he'll wear those special solar eclipse glasses - that he actually didn't wear that time he looked directly at the Sun.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      Also, it's a really stupid name for the Bill.

      Particularly since the sun doesn't shine there.

  • Here in British Columbia (in Canada, for the US readers), we changed our clocks for the final time this spring. Alberta as well. The rest of Canada is likely to follow suit.

    If we need to adjust schedules a couple times a year, fine, let's do that. But it's just plain stupid to change the clocks twice a year.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by caseih ( 160668 )

      I agree changing twice a year is stupid, but standard time is what most people want. The referendum in Alberta made that clear (which Smith completely ignores). They voted against full-time DST, but would have been completely in favor of full-time standard time.

      If Smith gets her way there won't be a Canada to follow suit in the next couple of years. All because, as trump says, we're being treated so unfairly.

  • GMT (Score:3)

    by isomer1 ( 749303 ) on Saturday May 23, 2026 @10:43PM (#66157856)
    People. Just switch to GMT and be done with it. It doesn't matter what number you wake up to or eat at or any of those things. Timezones are idiotic.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by iktos ( 166530 ) *

      It would be very impractical for the same day, in one place, to have two different dates. It would be super weird for two places near the date line to simultaneously have the exact same date and time but different days of week.

    • There's always one.

      No, time zones are not idiotic. People for centuries have considered noon to be when the sun is straight overhead, and midnight is the midpoint between dusk and dawn. That's not idiotic.

      Why should I have to go to a new city and ask, "What hour is midday here?" "What are office hours here?" No, *that* would be idiotic. Standardizing on certain time conventions, makes life easier to manage. It's only travelers who have to deal with time changes most of the year.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by caseih ( 160668 )

      Yes and China does that right now. All of China is one time zone, which happens to be the timezone that Beijing is in. The problem is that although they've eliminated timezones, they haven't eliminated the problems that came with timezones. Across China schedules are different to accommodate, you know, the sun. Someone in the east of china who wants to call someone in the west of china still has to be cognizant of the fact that in the west they go to work a couple of hours later than those in the east.

    • I expect you to join a meeting at 9am. Since timezones are idiotic I have no idea if this means you'll be asleep, at home, at work, having breakfast, or having dinner with the family. 9am is 9am right? And the social structure we have build to aid a common understanding of when and how people live their lives doesn't matter.

      So don't be late.

    • Coordination problems seem irrelevant to someone that no one else wants to associate with.

    • You may be privileged enough to not set your hours around work but many of us have actual work schedules and if our work schedule changes twice a year, we need to know about it. Otherwise, GMT is a perfect solution and I'm happy to go with that. Just stop changing the clocks.

  • I don't care which one you pick at this point (permanent DST or permanent standard), just keep it the same all year.

    Would love to see that in my lifetime.

  • we make double daylight savings permament. I don't need 5AM sunrises in the summer, but I wouldn't mind 10PM sunsets. I hate playing softball with the lights on. I'm fairly far north (Canada) so summer sunshine is what I live for.

    • Your so far north that you have late summer nights regardless of DST or ST. I visited my parents in Idaho last June and it was dully noted how long it took for that sun to set. That also happened to me with a trip to Montana one year. I remember being awake at like 10pm and thinking, damn I'm tired and it's still not dark yet...

      Of course, I tend to get up at 6am on my days off and 4am for work.

      Just stop changing the clock is all I ask.

  • This is some yearly ritual that usually goes nowhere. I am all for getting rid of DST -- just keep one time, whichever it is, done. We will all adjust and the net impact of normalization will be positive.

  • I know most people who oppose daylight savings aren't selfish assholes but many of the comments come across that way.

    You live in a society, you have to synchronize your time with others. Many activities will start sooner in the summer than in the winter. Particularly if you live between about 35 and 50 degrees North - 80% of the western worlds GDP. If you decide to start your work early and you don't work with others that's fine. But what if you work with others? What if you have kids you need to d

    • So I'm selfish for not wanting to change the clocks twice a year to accommodate an increasingly smaller demographic of people with children who's schools could just start later November-March? Are you really telling me those parents' work places won't adjust because they have kids? Most jobs could and would accommodate a simple child-care need such as a winter school schedule. Heck, I bet a lot of those businesses could adopt a winter schedule as well.

      Also, 6am Monday, shouldn't you be getting up for work b

  • No (Score:2)

    by djp2204 ( 713741 )

    Making daylight savings time permanent doesnâ(TM)t end daylight savings time. It memes it unending. It will also be just as much of a disaster now as it was in the 1970s

  • Brazil (Score:3)

    by Shakes Fist ( 10502847 ) on Sunday May 24, 2026 @04:04PM (#66158766)
    DST was junked a few years ago and everything is fine. Really.
    People get up, do stuff, return home. No fuss and no dicking around with clocks twice a year.

  • Why repeat a failed experiment? (Score:3)

    by sml7291 ( 6482168 ) on Sunday May 24, 2026 @05:16PM (#66158840)

    When I was younger I did shift work and wasn’t too put out by it. Typically, it was 7a to 3p, 3p to 11p and 11p to 7a.... When I was on a day shift I had plenty of evening sunlight to work with.

    Maybe more folks should give 7 to 3 (as opposed to 9 to 5) a try rather than changing the clocks twice a year. And when I worked mids I slept during the day (so, in my experience, sleeping while the sun is up isn't that big a deal).

    And, as I’ve gotten older, I find the twice a year time shifts to be more and more of a PITA. While I was still working I would have killed to get rid of DST.... I, for one, found that daylight in the morning helped me get going (and it’s good for kids going to school too).

    If someone wants an extra hour of sunlight in the evening then they should be the ones to get up an hour earlier every morning and just let the rest of us sleep in.

    I am (grudgingly) willing to admit that the, so called, daylight saving time MIGHT make a little sense for maybe a month before and after the summer solstice and only in the middle latitudes.

    What we have now is moronic and all year long would be simply insane. Plus, the further north or south you go it is just plain stupid to go with DST at any time of the year, at least that's been my experience living in north, south and middle latitudes in my lifetime.

    And let's not forget that yearlong DST was tried in the 70's and it failed badly and was changed back. Why do so many feel the need to repeat that failed experiment? How about giving year long STANDARD time a try?

    Yes, I know I'm in the minority here, but that's nothing new... rational thinkers always are.

  • Noon should be when the sun is highest in the sky.

  • I have differing opinions about DST, and I appreciate some of the comments by those that differ.

    IMHO, the fact that this contentious issue pisses everyone off so much (GRIN), I think is sufficient reason to standardize time.

    What the US does (ie: on the east coast) impacts global interests (who also have do deal with our time changes). I feel like the base reasons for seasonal time change have long since become moot.

Slashdot Top Deals

This universe shipped by weight, not by volume. Some expansion of the contents may have occurred during shipment.

Close