CHARLOTTE — The Senate unanimously approved a measure Tuesday that would make daylight saving time permanent across the United States next year.
The bipartisan bill, named the Sunshine Protection Act, would ensure Americans would no longer have to change their clocks twice a year. But the bill still needs approval from the House, and the signature of President Joe Biden, to become law.
“No more switching clocks, more daylight hours to spend outside after school and after work, and more smiles — that is what we get with permanent Daylight Saving Time,” Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, the original cosponsor of the legislation, said in a statement.
Markey was joined on the chamber floor by senators from both parties as they made the case for how making daylight saving time permanent would have positive effects on public health and the economy and even cut energy consumption.
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How would the change affect the Carolinas?
Leading up to “springing forward” this year, the sun rose in the Carolinas at 6:38 a.m. on March 12 and set at 6:28 p.m. that same night. It’ll take about six to seven weeks to get back to sunrise in the 6:30 hour.
If the bill gets made into law, our daylight hours would change significantly. The latest sunrise we could see would be at about 8:32 a.m. for about 11 days -- from Jan. 2 to Jan. 12. The earliest sunset would be at 6:10 p.m. from Dec. 2 to Dec. 7. Now, the earliest sunset we see is at 5:10 p.m.
Nearly a dozen states across the U.S. have already standardized daylight saving time.
Daylight saving time is defined as a period between spring and fall when clocks in most parts of the country are set one hour ahead of standard time. Americans last changed their clocks on Sunday. Standard time lasts for roughly four months in most of the country.
Members of Congress have long been interested in the potential benefits and costs of daylight saving time since it was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942. The proposal will now go to the House, where the Energy and Commerce Committee had a hearing to discuss possible legislation last week.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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