Senate Commerce Committee hears competing evidence on ending clock changes; witnesses split on permanent daylight time vs. standard time

At a hearing of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, senators and expert witnesses debated legislation to end twice-yearly clock changes and whether the United States should adopt permanent daylight saving time or permanent standard time. The hearing featured testimony from the Sunshine Protection Act’s sponsor and four witnesses representing advocacy, business, sleep medicine and road-safety research.

Committee members framed the choice as a trade-off between near-term harms from the biannual time shifts and longer-term effects of where the nation would “lock the clock.” Senator Rick Scott introduced the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time the national, year‑round standard; he told the panel the bill has bipartisan backing in the Senate and a House companion. Supporters called for fixing the system nationally; opponents and some health experts warned that locking to daylight saving time would worsen circadian misalignment for many Americans.

The core disagreement at the hearing was procedural and geographic as well as scientific: several witnesses and senators said ending the twice‑yearly switch is desirable, but they differed on whether Congress should set permanent daylight saving time, set permanent standard time, or give states a transition and then let them choose.

Scott Yates, founder of the Lock the Clock movement, argued both that the biannual switch is harmful and that a federal…