TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — In 2018, Florida lawmakers said they wanted to push the Sunshine State into an era of time never changing, when it came to resetting clocks. Daylight saving time ends again on Nov. 6 and Florida’s time freeze is still watching the clock.
Despite bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress, the U.S. is still stuck changing its clocks every year. The Florida legislation to permanently spring ahead is entirely contingent on whether or not U.S. Congress chooses to make the time permanent, too.
Years after passing in Florida, the federal version has not passed, though 2022 was the closest it’s gotten in several years.
As previously reported, the federal effort to permanently have daylight saving time was championed by two federal lawmakers from Florida, Sen. Marco Rubio, (R-Fla.), and Rep. Vern Buchanan, (R-Sarasota). The legislation, called the Sunshine Protection Act, has failed to jump past the legal hurdles in either chamber to move to the President’s desk.
In March, the bill to pass a permanent daylight saving time cleared the U.S. Senate, a first, but failed to pick up support in the U.S. House of Representatives.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Florida is not alone in its efforts, nor in relying on Congress to make it happen.
The conference reports that 19 states in the U.S. are working toward making DST permanent, while Arizona and Hawaii, as well as U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, have permanent standard time.
Still, despite the unanimous consent passage in the U.S. Senate, the Sunshine Protection Act has not proceeded in the House. The bill has sat there since March 16, according to congressional records.
