US lawmakers to debate whether to stop twice yearly clock switching

The US House of Representatives is set to vote this week on a bill to make daylight saving time year-round, while another group of lawmakers wants to make standard time permanent.

The House Rules Committee will meet at 4pm Monday to decide whether to make any amendments in order before the House considers the measure later this week.

In May, the ‌House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 48-1 in favour of the Sunshine Protection Act. The US Senate voted unanimously in ⁠March 2022 to make daylight saving time permanent but the House never took up the measure in the face of opposition. The proposal would allow ‌states to ⁠opt out and Hawaii and Arizona do not observe daylight saving time.

Supporters of the measure say the time shift causes sleep disturbances, greater workplace injuries and more car crashes. They also believe brighter evenings would spur more economic activity during winter.

Daylight saving time — putting the clocks forward one hour during the summer half of the year — has been in place in nearly all of the United States since the 1960s.

Last week, two lawmakers introduced the Sunshine for Our Kids Act and make standard time the permanent default nationwide, while allowing states to opt into daylight saving time if they choose.

Representatives Pat Harrigan and Mary Gay Scanlon argue standard time helps ensure that mornings are better aligned with natural light and circadian rhythms.

President Donald Trump has aggressively pushed for an end to the twice-annual clock- switching.

If it passes the House, the US Senate would need to again consider whether to take up the measure, which faces opposition from US Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, and others.

Cotton has said it would result in absurdly late winter sunrises and force children to go to school in darkness in much of the country.

The United States used year-round daylight saving time during World War Two and enacted it again in 1974 to reduce energy use. But it proved deeply unpopular and Congress repealed it later that year.