The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Sunshine Protection Act last week by a vote of 308 to 117, with the goal of making daylight saving time permanent nationwide.
However, the bill faces significant resistance in the Senate, where the opposition is largely divided along geographic lines.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R.S.D.) acknowledged the bill’s bleak prospects: “Have you ever seen an issue that people are more passionate about and that divides the country more regionally than that?”
A leading opponent, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), said he will 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 that the sun would not rise until after 8 or even 8:30 a.m. during the dead of winter,” Cotton said.
“Three months a year, children in cities like Bentonville, Fayetteville and Fort Smith started school before the sun,” he added.
The debate over the law has created a clear geographic divide, with Southern states supporting more afternoon daylight and Northern and Midwestern states opposing the decision.
Under this law, cities like Pierre, SD and South Bend, Indiana, will not see sunrise until after 9:00 a.m. on some winter days. While in Minnesota, the latest sunrise would be around 8:51 a.m.
Congress attempted to implement permanent daylight saving time in the 1970s during President Richard Nixon’s administration, but the proposal proved so controversial that it had to be withdrawn just 10 months later.
Additionally, the Senate’s busy schedule is likely to make passing the bill even more difficult. The House has other issues on its agenda, including nominations, FISA reauthorization and sanctions on Russia. In that sense, the Sun Protection Law may never reach the plenary session until the August recess.
President Trump, on the other hand, is in favor of eliminating the practice of time change.
