HR139-119

In Committee

Sunshine Protection Act of 2025

119th Congress Introduced Jan 3, 2025

Summary

What This Bill Does

The Sunshine Protection Act of 2025 would end the twice-yearly clock change by repealing section 3 of the Uniform Time Act of 1966 and adjusting the Calder Act's statutory time-zone offsets. Instead of moving clocks forward and back each year, the bill makes daylight saving time the year-round federal standard. It also addresses States and areas that had exempted themselves from daylight saving time under prior law, allowing their standard time to be treated according to the amended framework. The practical stakes are schedules for commuters, schools, broadcasters, airlines, businesses, and state time-law administrators.

Who Benefits and How

Retail businesses benefit if later evening daylight supports shopping, dining, and after-work activity. Outdoor recreation businesses benefit from more usable evening daylight throughout the year. Workers with evening commutes benefit if more trips home happen in daylight. Broadcasters and national scheduling companies benefit from ending semiannual clock-change disruption.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Morning commuters bear darker winter mornings in many regions after daylight saving time becomes permanent. School districts must adjust transportation and safety planning for students traveling before sunrise. Transportation Department time officials must update federal time-zone administration and public guidance. States with existing exemptions must decide how their local time treatment fits the amended federal baseline.

Key Provisions

  • Repeals the Uniform Time Act provision that creates seasonal daylight saving time observance.
  • Amends statutory time-zone offsets to make daylight saving time the permanent baseline.
  • Provides treatment for States and areas that had exempted themselves from daylight saving time.
  • Ends the federal requirement for twice-yearly clock changes.

Evidence Chain:

This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.

At a Glance

What This Bill Does

Repeals the federal daylight-saving-time switching rule and adjusts time-zone offsets so daylight saving time becomes the permanent national baseline, while preserving treatment for areas already exempt from seasonal switching.

Key Policy Areas

Transportation, Time Standards, Commerce

Primary Purpose

Repeals the federal daylight-saving-time switching rule and adjusts time-zone offsets so daylight saving time becomes the permanent national baseline, while preserving treatment for areas already exempt from seasonal switching.

Policy Domains

Transportation Time Standards Commerce

Resolution provisions

Identified Gains
  • Retail businesses
  • Outdoor recreation businesses
  • Evening commuters
  • National scheduling companies
Model: codex-gpt-5 | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: ih
Evening commuters:
Retail businesses:
National scheduling companies:
Outdoor recreation businesses:
Identified Costs
  • Morning commuters
  • School districts
  • Transportation Department time officials
  • Exempt states
Model: codex-gpt-5 | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: ih
Exempt states:
School districts:
Morning commuters:
Transportation Department time officials:

Legislative Progress

In Committee
Introduced Committee Passed
Jan 3, 2025

Mr. Buchanan introduced the following bill; which was referred to …

Jan 3, 2025

Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Jan 3, 2025

Introduced in House

Stakeholder Effects

cui bono?

How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.

Retail
1 mention across 1 clause
+1 positive

Retail businesses

Recreation
1 mention across 1 clause
+1 positive

Outdoor recreation businesses

Transportation
1 mention across 1 clause
-1 negative

Morning commuters

Education
1 mention across 1 clause
-1 negative

School districts

1/2
sections analyzed
Full impact breakdown

Bill Structure & Actor Mappings

Who is "The Secretary" in each section?

Domains
Transportation Time Standards Commerce

We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.

Learn more about our methodology