America moves closer to permanently eliminating time change: Looking at lessons from other countries
On July 14, 2026, the US House of Representatives passed the Sunshine Protection Act bill. If it becomes law, this bill will keep America's clocks fixed at Daylight Saving Time (DST) year-round, completely ending the practice of having to adjust the clock twice a year: turning it ........ 1 hour in March (starting daylight saving time) and then turning it back 1 hour in November (returning to standard time) as has been maintained for decades. The bill now moves to the Senate for further consideration. But America's story is not unique - in fact, this is a debate that has been taking place in many parts of the world, with lessons from both success and failure that are worth considering.
What does the bill change?
If signed into law, the Sunshine Protection Act would permanently lock America's clocks to Daylight Saving Time year-round, instead of alternating between daylight saving time (March through November) and standard time (November through March) as it currently does. In other words, Americans will no longer have to set their clocks forward 1 hour in March and then back 1 hour in November each year. Hawaii and most of Arizona - two areas that were already outside the time change system - will continue to be exempt and keep standard time year-round. The bill is led by Republican Congressman Vern Buchanan (Florida), with notable Democratic support from Congressman Frank Pallone (New Jersey) - a rare bipartisan consensus in the current American political landscape. After passing the House, the bill now moves to the Senate for further consideration before it can become official law.
A controversy that has lasted more than 50 years
To understand why this bill attracts special attention, we need to look back at history. The idea of adopting fixed DST is not new. The United States tested this in 1973, under President Richard Nixon, as an energy saving measure amid the oil crisis. But less than a year later, this policy was abolished because of backlash from public opinion, especially when children had to go to school in the winter darkness and the number of morning traffic accidents increased. This is the reason that Democratic Representative Mary Gay Scanlon, one of the voices opposing this bill, reiterated as a warning: "The 1973 regulation was repealed within just one year because it was ineffective."
President Nixon signed the law fixing DST in 1973 The current version of the bill, first initiated by Senator Marco Rubio in 2018, has been reintroduced many times through successive Congresses. Notably, in March 2022, the Senate passed the bill by "unanimous consent" - a procedure that allows for quick passage if no parliamentarian objects on the spot. However, many senators later admitted they did not even know the vote was taking place, including Republican Senator Tom Cotton - who strongly opposed the idea. Because of the lack of substantive consensus, the bill was not considered by the House of Representatives and eventually fell into oblivion when the 117th National Assembly term ended.
Why do advocates want to keep daylight saving time year-round?
Proponents of fixed DST argue that more light in the evenings will bring a series of practical benefits: reduced crime rates (because streets are brighter during the evening rush hour), fewer traffic accidents during those hours, extended hours of outdoor activities and recreational sports after work, and may help reduce seasonal affective disorder (SAD), which is linked to early darkness in winter. These are also the main arguments that the supporters, led by Mr. Buchanan, used to convince their colleagues in the House of Representatives.
Why does the scientific community lean in the opposite direction?
Ironically, much of the scientific community on sleep and circadian rhythms opposes the very solution chosen by this bill. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine publicly opposes permanent DST, arguing that standard time is a more suitable option for humans' natural circadian rhythms, helping to improve morning travel safety, student health and labor productivity. A 2025 study from Stanford University even estimated that if the US switched to standard time permanently (instead of permanent daylight saving time), the number of obesity cases could decrease by up to 2.6 million and the number of strokes by about 300,000 per year – although the researchers also note that this is just a circadian health perspective, and there are many other policy factors to consider. Interestingly, although scientists and some lawmakers still disagree on whether to choose daylight saving time or standard time as the fixed time, there is one point on which the majority of Americans agree: about 75% of the population supports completely ending the custom of changing the time twice a year, although they do not necessarily agree on what time it should stop.
Looking at the world: the picture of time is not uniform
If we look beyond the borders of the United States, we can immediately see one thing: seasonal time change has never been a global norm, but is actually only a "specialty" of certain regions. According to statistics from Wikipedia and sites that track international time zones, DST is currently mainly applied only in Europe (European Union and many neighboring countries), most of North America (USA, Canada), along with a few scattered countries in Oceania and South America. Meanwhile, most of Asia, Africa and most of South America are completely unchanged. China, Japan and India - three of Asia's largest economies - all do not observe DST. Japan briefly experimented after World War II (1948-1951) and then gave up; China also had a period of applying DST from 1986 to 1991 before completely abolishing it; India only used DST during the war (1941-1945) and has not returned since then.
Children wearing signs protesting daylight saving time in 1939 Photo by Walter Kelleher/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images The reason is quite simple: the closer countries are to the equator, the smaller the difference in lighting hours between summer and winter, so changing the time brings almost no practical benefit - this is also the reason why Hawaii and most of Arizona in the US, two areas with low latitudes or hot climates all year round, have long been outside the time change system. Another interesting point is that China, despite spanning an area equivalent to 5 geographical time zones, only uses one official time zone nationwide (Beijing time, UTC+8) - a decision that is more political than scientific, causing people in the westernmost regions like Xinjiang to live with the sun rising very late compared to the clock. Another confusing detail is that in the Southern Hemisphere, countries that apply DST such as Australia, New Zealand or Chile change their time according to a completely opposite calendar compared to the Northern Hemisphere: they switch to summer time around October and return to standard time in April, because their summer falls exactly in the winter period in the US or Europe.
European Union: once planned to abandon time change but then... gave up
Notably, Europe was also very close to completely eliminating the custom of changing time - even far ahead of the United States. In 2018, the European Commission organized a public survey and received about 4.6 million responses, of which the overwhelming majority supported ending time change. In 2019, the European Parliament voted to approve a proposal to abolish the Daylight Savings Time Directive, leaving each member state to decide whether to choose summer time or standard time as their fixed time. But then this proposal stalled for many years at the European Council, due to concerns that if each country chose a different time, the whole continent would turn into a patchwork time zone map, causing chaos for traffic, aviation and cross-border trade activities within the common market. By around mid-2025, the European Commission is said to have shown signs of withdrawing its own proposal, and so far Europe continues to change time regularly twice a year as before - a testament to the fact that this seemingly simple issue is actually much more complicated when it comes to coordinating between many countries with different interests.
Lesson from Russia: when choosing "permanent summer time" you have to turn back
Perhaps the most notable — and under-reported lesson in American debates — comes from Russia, the only country that has actually experienced the exact scenario the Sunshine Protection Act is proposing. In 2011, then-President Dmitry Medvedev decided to abolish the time change and choose fixed summer time all year round, for the same reason as the US side today: reducing sleep disorders and inconvenience caused by having to adjust the clock twice a year. But this policy quickly revealed serious problems, especially in high latitudes. In winter, the capital Moscow has to wait until after 10 a.m. for the sun to rise; In northern Russian cities, it takes until 11 a.m. or even midday for it to get fully light. Children had to go to school in complete darkness for months at a time, causing major safety concerns. The wave of protest in public opinion was so great that in 2014, President Vladimir Putin signed a law completely reversing the above decision, switching Russia to fixed standard time (back one hour) instead of summer time. Russia's story clearly shows: choosing "what time" to fix is as important as "whether" to fix it or not, especially in areas with large day-night light differences between seasons.
What will happen next?
Looking at the global picture, it can be seen that America is not alone in this debate, but there is also no general formula that has been proven to be completely correct. Europe is cautious because of fears of division; Russia tried and had to turn back; Most of Asia and Africa have long avoided this problem by not changing the time from the beginning. If the Sunshine Protection Act is signed into law, the United States will become one of the few major economies to actually pilot permanent national daylight saving time in modern times — and the results of this experiment, whether successful or not, will likely become an important reference for other countries considering a similar path.