Why the safest political path on daylight saving time is to do nothing

Daylight saving time ends at 2:00 a.m. on Nov. 1 . This summer, the House passed the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025 , which would make it permanent year-round. The 308-117 vote drew support from across the aisle.

This is the first bill to pass in Congress since the Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 with unanimous consent. Yet if Congress falls back into legislative inertia after the midterms, the 2025 bill may never become law, giving false hope for some and wasting the American people’s time once again.

Given the similarities between the two bills, the 2025 version should in theory have no problem passing in the Senate. But the 2021 Senate bill was passed during a sparsely attended session , with some members expressing concern after the fact. Today, around three-fifths of those Senate members remain in office; on paper, this group may be sufficient to pass the 2025 bill into law. The president will sign the bill into law if it reaches his desk, and has even chastised Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) for not supporting it in the Senate.

If simply stopping clock-changes were the issue, the Uniform Time Act of 1966 already permits this, giving every state or territory the option to adopt permanent standard time year-round — but not year-round daylight saving time. Arizona and Hawaii are the only two states to adopt year-round standard time, as have several territories, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Historically, people have expressed a clear preference for daylight saving time , which provides more light year-round in the evening hours and less light in the morning hours. This is not supported by sleep researchers, who claim that standard time is more aligned with circadian rhythms that regulate sleep patterns and other biological functions, making year-round standard time the healthier alternative .

In general, the further away a city or state is from the equator, the more pronounced the effect of seasonal light changes across the calendar. Cities in Florida experience minimal light variation year-round, whereas cities in northern states like Maine and Washington see abrupt changes. In fact, day-to-day light changes during the vernal and autumnal equinoxes in Seattle are around three to four minutes per day . Cities in Alaska, like Juneau and Anchorage, experience even more pronounced shifts. This northern-southern tension ensures that no one can be completely happy.

That is why Canada’s efforts to freeze its clocks offer a yellow flag to our own country. Three of the four western provinces (Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia) and the Northwest Territories have all opted for permanent daylight saving time, whereas Saskatchewan and the Yukon have chosen permanent standard time. This means that Saskatchewan’s time now aligns exactly with Alberta’s. Moving east, Ontario and Quebec, home to more than 60 percent of the country’s population , continue to use seasonal changes.

So what will the Senate do with the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025 ? Likely nothing. It will die in committee and wait out the clock until the new Congress is elected and eventually seated in January. This will force a new group of House members to resurrect the 2025 bill, pass it and move it onto the Senate, where it will likely be delayed again.

Neither the House nor the Senate wants any bill signed into law that ends seasonal clock changes. The long-term risk of being wrong (daylight saving time versus standard time) is far greater than the short-term benefits of making a choice. People vacillate between the two options, with a slight preference for daylight saving time. Trump willingness to sign the most recent bill keeps him out of the political fray surrounding the issue.

What all this means is that we will indeed change our clocks on Nov. 1 as scheduled, and switch to daylight saving time again on March 14, 2027 . If aversion to clock changes is really the issue, standard time remains available to every state.

Despite general preference for daylight saving time, it proved unpopular when last tried under President Nixon in 1973. The problem cited most often was that children were forced to go to school in the dark. It was repealed in October 1974 . Although a shift of the school day by one hour would have resolved that issue, that too carries with it massive logistical challenges.

Clearly, there is no pressure to enact a law that may need to be undone shortly after it is passed. Even a proposed 30-minute split-the difference solution would face legislative headwinds, though it may appease some.

A clear warning from Canada’s time-setting implementation may be why political gridlock, coupled with geographic priorities, fuels inaction and lets the clock run out. Addressing travel across adjacent state borders demands thoughtful consideration. Indeed, it is not just procrastination — it is the safest political path to tread.

Sheldon H. Jacobson, Ph.D., is a professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He applies his expertise in data-driven risk-based decision-making to evaluate and inform public policy.