A bill to make daylight saving time permanent passed the Senate last week, but the House might prevent it from seeing the light of day.
Both Republicans and Democrats in the lower chamber have indicated they are in no hurry to speed up the clock on the legislation, The Hill reports. Many cited the need to focus on the crisis in Ukraine as well as the need for members to take time to review the bill.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., told The Hill that she has supported the action in the past but has received mixed reactions to it from her constituents.
''I've been hearing a lot about this from my constituents recently because we're in Seattle and it is so dark,'' she told The Hill. ''And so if we make daylight saving permanent, it's gonna be dark until like nine o'clock in the morning.''
Jayapal said she thinks that ''having one time zone is just easier,'' but added that she wants ''to pay attention to what people are saying.''
Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, told The Hill he was going to ''ask my staff for some empirical studies about this'' before making a decision.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who leads the House Democratic Caucus, told The Hill that he assumes the legislation will ''be more broadly discussed both by the relevant committees and within the caucus sooner rather than later.''
''Different members have articulated a different perspective,'' he added. ''We'll have to come to some consensus. We were unexpectedly sent this bill by the Senate. Now, we're trying to absorb it.''
The bill was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate on Tuesday. If passed by the House and signed into law by President Joe Biden, it would take effect in 2023 after the country went back to daylight saving time in the spring.
The bipartisan bill, named the Sunshine Protection Act, would ensure Americans would no longer have to change their clocks twice a year. But the bill still needs approval from the House, and the president's signature, to become law.
''No more switching clocks, more daylight hours to spend outside after school and after work, and more smiles — that is what we get with permanent Daylight Saving Time,'' Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, the original co-sponsor of the legislation, said in a statement.
Markey was joined on the chamber floor by senators from both parties as they made the case for how making daylight saving time permanent would have positive effects on public health and the economy and even cut energy consumption.
''Changing the clock twice a year is outdated and unnecessary,'' Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said.
''I've said it before and I'll say it again: Americans want more sunshine and less depression — people in this country, all the way from Seattle to Miami, want the Sunshine Protection Act,'' Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., added.
Nearly a dozen states across the U.S. have already standardized daylight saving time.
Daylight saving time is defined as a period between spring and fall when clocks in most parts of the country are set one hour ahead of standard time. Americans last changed their clocks on March 13. Standard time lasts for roughly four months in most of the country.
Members of Congress have long been interested in the potential benefits and costs of daylight saving time since it was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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