Utah lawmaker reacts to Senate’s passing of a bill to make daylight saving time permanent

SALT LAKE CITY — The United States Senate passed a bill Tuesday, making daylight saving time permanent, and it has a Utah lawmaker smiling from ear to ear.

“When I heard that they actually had a committee hearing last week in the Senate, I was extremely excited about it,” said Utah Sen. Wayne Harper to KSL NewsRadio.

Making Daylight Saving permanent

According to The Associated Press, the bill named the Sunshine Protection Act would make it so that Americans would no longer have to adjust their clocks twice a year.

“Myself, Rep. Ward and a number of our colleagues in other states have been working with members of Congress to get this done,” Sen. Harper said, who has proposed such legislation in Utah.

He says a bill that was passed in the Utah Legislature a few years back said Utah would switch to permanent daylight saving when it got congressional approval. 

Sen. Harper says people are really thrown off with the time change, and it creates struggles in their lives.

“And it causes more accidents and there is more health issues,” he said. “There’s a deterioration at work until people’s internal clock gets adjusted. It’s a great step forward. I’m grateful it’s finally happening and moving on the federal level.”

The bill making daylight saving time permanent needs approval from the House and the signature from President Joe Biden in order to become law.

Harper says Rep. John Curtis is in support of changing the bill. He also says Rep. Chris Stewart has a bill introduced that would give the states the option of keeping daylight saving. According to Harper, Rep. Burgess Owens is still considering options to stop changing the clocks twice a year. 

Harper is hopeful the House can quickly pass the bill.

“I’m hopeful that they’ll pass it before we get too much further into summer,” he said. “And we cannot change our clocks in November.”

Read more:

• Daylight Saving Time again a consideration by Utah lawmakers
• Daylight Saving Time has ended. Here’s how to make the most of your time and combat seasonal mental health issues