Top House Democrats used a Monday evening leadership meeting to debate whether to vote for legislation on the floor this week that would make daylight savings time permanent.
The bill, known as the Sunshine Protection Act, advanced overwhelmingly in the House Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this year as part of a package to reauthorize surface transportation programs. House GOP leaders have chosen to bring it up as a standalone measure in a sign of momentum for the long-debated legislative proposal.
But members of both parties have concerns about the implications of adding more sunlight to the evening hours by ending the twice yearly practice of resetting the clocks. And the emerging schism among Democrats is the latest sign the legislation might be in trouble — if not in the House in the coming days than in the weeks ahead as the measure winds its way through the Senate.
One person who attended Monday’s Democratic Steering and Policy Committee meeting, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said discussion about the Sunshine Protection Act dominated about two-thirds of the allotted time and that members were “very split.”
A second person granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting said “people have different positions.”
Democratic Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Rep. Nanette Barragán of California spoke out against making daylight saving time permanent, according to the first person — with Wasserman Schultz raising concerns about child safety and Barragán pointing to medical research opposing the change on the basis it would be harmful to sleep patterns as well as mental and physical health.
Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, spoke in favor of the legislation inside the meeting, said the first person with knowledge of the discussion, while Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries did not weigh in.
Pallone also shared his position during a meeting of the House Rules Committee earlier Monday, asserting that “a big majority” of Americans want daylight saving time and that resetting the clocks is deeply unpopular.
“I don’t really know anybody who wants to change the clocks anymore,” he said.
This is a topic that has been debated for years but has failed to gain traction — in part because of such strong opposition among lawmakers from some agriculture-heavy states who say the change would make it so that farmers would be unable to see daylight in the winter months until nearly 9 a.m.
Rep. Mary Scanlon (D-Pa.), a member of the Rules Committee, agreed that Americans are fed up with resetting the clocks but argued medical and science professionals overwhelmingly endorse permanent standard time, which would allow more sunlight in the morning hours.
She introduced an amendment — which failed — that would have replaced the bill with her legislation that she said would make standard time permanent, allowing states to opt for daylight saving time instead. Barragán said in a statement she supports that amendment.