The Sunshine Protection Act calls for us to switch to DST tonight, and then stay there!
Here we go again! Another spring, another "spring-forward" for the clocks. Daylight Saving Time goes into effect at 2:00 a.m. overnight tonight, when we will automatically jump to 3:00 a.m., thereby losing an hour of sleep.
The time change always gets mixed reviews. Many people suffer from the lack of sleep, and there can be significant health impacts. On the other hand, it's also easy to get excited about daylight extending later into the PM hours. It is a reminder that we're transitioning out of the cold, dark days of winter.
Sunrise in D.C. on Sunday will be 7:20 a.m., and the sun won't set until 7:14 p.m. Sunday evening.
Regardless of how you feel about sunshine in the morning vs evening hours, most people agree that the constant changing back and forth twice a year has become more of an annoyance than an act of purpose.
With that in mind, the Sunshine Protection Act has been proposed in Congress. The suggestion is to make Daylight Saving Time the new permanent time. We already spend 8 months out of the year in DST, so this would simply eliminate the return to Standard Time over the winter.
States that do not currently observe the time change would have the option to choose between staying in Standard Time, or advancing to Saving Time (essentially choosing their time zone).
This is not the first year Florida Congressmen have attempted to get the bill passed. In fact, the state of Florida passed the change in 2018 and is simply awaiting federal approval to put it into effect.
Although the bill is bipartisan, the website govtrack gives is a very low chance of passing. It was introduced to the House on January 4th, and has not made any progress since. And of course past years' attempts have been unsuccessful. More likely than not, you will have to turn your clocks back again in the fall.
