After years of effort by Florida legislators, the U.S. House voted July 14 to make daylight saving time permanent and end the twice-a-year time change. The measure, approved by President Donald Trump, must still be approved by the U.S. Senate.
Since 1966, Americans in nearly all the U.S. states have changed their clocks in the spring to align their man-made schedules to the longer summer daylight hours and shorter nights, changing them back in the fall as nights get longer again. Changing clocks to daylight saving time means more sunlight for outdoor activities after work or in the evenings, and more light for evening traffic.
However, “locking the clock” the rest of the year would mean later sunrises and darker periods for students and morning commuters. Has the U.S. tried a permanent daylight saving time before?
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Yes. Daylight saving time (then nicknamed “war time”) started in the U.S. in 1918, during the First World War, to conserve fuel and energy during warmer months. It was repealed after the war, and was brought back for the duration of WWII.
After that, states could pick their own times until 1966, when Congress standardized times for the country and established twice-yearly daylight saving time changes.
Then, in the 1970s, the United States tried making daylight saving time last year-round in peacetime.
It didn’t go well.
Permanent daylight saving time tried in the 70s
In December 1973, then-President Richard Nixon and other leaders were struggling to deal with the ongoing energy crisis, skyrocketing gas prices, and long lines at gas stations from an Arab oil embargo. They worked to ration gasoline, enact a national speed limit of 55 mph, and made daylight saving time permanent for two years.
The idea behind the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act, just as during “war time,” was to reduce electricity consumption in the evenings and conserve fuel.
It didn’t even last a year.
Permanent daylight saving time was a failure
The change started on Jan. 6, 1974. Almost immediately, there were complaints of children going to bus stops or teens driving to school in pitch blackness now that the sun came up an hour later for them.
By the end of January, eight Florida schoolchildren were killed in accidents compared to two in the same time period the year before, just some of the accidents reported around the country. According to The New York Times, a spokesman for Florida’s education department said that “six of the deaths were clearly attributable to the fact that children were going off to school in darkness.”
Responding to the deaths and many angry parents, then-Florida Gov. Reubin Askew called a special session of the Florida Legislature to consider a return to standard time, the Times reported. Then-Senator Lawton Chiles, later Florida’s governor, joined in the call to repeal the two-year measure immediately.
American approval of the permanent change, which was 79% before it was enacted, plummeted to just 42% by February.
By October, Congress voted to repeal permanent daylight saving time and go back to standard time during the winter months.
When does daylight saving time end?
Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, at which time clocks “fall back” and reset to 1 a.m.
What would permanent daylight saving time be like?
The hours of available daylight dwindle as winter approaches and increase in the spring. Daylight saving time just moves the clock.
If we didn’t “fall back” and set our clocks back an hour in November, sunrise would be around 7:40 a.m. and sunset would be around 5:40 p.m. By the end of December through January, sunrise would be around 8:18 a.m., well after most kids were in school.
Sunsets would be later, allowing for more outdoor activities after school and work, which is a boon in a state so dependent on tourist dollars and a big reason why so many people are in favor of it. But schoolchildren would be in the dark in the mornings, and commuters would have to deal with more fog, frost and hazardous conditions on the way to work.
In comparison, standard time means earlier sunrises and sunsets, which some argue increases safety in the mornings for schoolchildren and is more in line with our biological circadian rhythms.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the American Medical Association and the National Sleep Foundation have all urged for a change to year-round standard time, and the “Sunshine for Our Kids Act of 2026,” filed on July 9 by Reps. Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania and Pat Harrigan of North Carolina, would make standard time permanent instead.
Florida legislators have tried to end time change for years
The charge to end daylight saving time changes has been led by Florida politicians.
In 2018, Florida became the first state to pass legislation “locking the clock” to stick with daylight saving time year-round, but it requires an act of Congress before it can go into effect. Annual bills to do that since have failed to move.
Florida (or any state) could simply decide to stick to standard time all year without anyone else’s approval, but so far lawmakers and lobbyists in the Sunshine State have pushed for permanent DST (although one Florida lawmaker wanted to split the difference).
C. A. Bridges is a journalist for the USA TODAY Network-Florida’s service journalism Connect team. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: US tried permanent daylight saving time before. Florida children died
Reporting by C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida | USA TODAY Network
