Comment Early this Sunday morning, Americans will participate in the annual fall ritual of “falling back” — setting their clocks back one hour to comply with standard time. If some lawmakers had their way, it would mark the end of a tradition that spans more than a century. But a familiar story that hasn’t unraveled is congressional gridlock and a relentless lobbying campaign, one by supporters of what some jokingly call “The Big Sleep.” A permanent “spring forward” bill has been stalled in Congress for more than seven months as lawmakers argue over whether the Senate should have passed the legislation at all. House officials say they have been overwhelmed by divided voters and warnings from sleep experts who insist adopting a permanent standard time would be healthier, and congressional leaders admit they just don’t know what to do. “We haven’t been able to find consensus in the House on this yet,” said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (DN.J.) in a statement to the Washington Post. “There is a wide variety of views on whether to maintain the status quo, move to a permanent time, and if so, what time it should be.” Pallone, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee that oversees time-change policies, also said he was wary of repeating a previous congressional effort to establish daylight saving time nearly 50 years ago, which was quickly repealed amid widespread reports that dark winter mornings led to more traffic accidents and gloomier moods. “We don’t want to make a hasty change and then reverse it several years later after public opinion turns against it — which is exactly what happened in the early 1970s,” Pallone said. With lawmakers hitting the snooze button, there is little chance the legislation will advance during the period following next week’s election, congressional aides said. The bill’s quiet demise ends an unusual episode that briefly paralyzed Congress, became fodder for late-night comics and fueled the water debate. The Senate’s unanimous vote in March to allow states to permanently change their clocks took some of the House members themselves by surprise — and in a reversal of traditional Washington dynamics, it was the House that slowed the Senate legislation. Key senators who supported permanent daylight saving time say they are disappointed that their effort appears doomed and frustrated that they will likely have to start over in the next Congress. At least 19 states in recent years have enacted laws or passed resolutions that would allow them to enforce daylight saving time year-round — but only if Congress passes legislation to stop the country from changing twice a year, according to the National Conference State Legislatures. “This is not a partisan or regional issue, it’s a common sense issue,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who authored the Sunshine Protection Act, which passed the Senate in March. Senate staff noted that a bipartisan companion bill in the House, sponsored by 48 Republicans and Democrats, has stalled for nearly two years in an Energy and Commerce subcommittee chaired by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). “I don’t know why the House refuses to pass this bill — it seems like it’s rarely in session — but I’m going to keep pushing to make this a reality,” Rubio said, gesturing to his congressional counterparts. The somber mood of Rubio and his colleagues this fall is a stark contrast to their sunny celebrations when the Senate suddenly passed their bill two days after the “spring forward” clock was changed, with lawmakers still fractious to campaign it as common sense reform. “My phone has been ringing off the hook in support of this bill – from mums and dads who want more light at bedtime to seniors who want more sun in the evenings to enjoy the outdoors to farmers who could use the extra daylight to work in the fields,” said a fundraising email sent in March by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.). But behind the scenes, the bill’s forecast was almost immediately clouded. Some senators told reporters they were surprised the bill passed through a parliamentary process known as unanimous consent, which eliminates the need for debate or an actual vote count if no senator opposes a measure, and they wished a more traditional series of hearings had taken place and legislative notes. Sleep experts and neuroscientists urgently warned that turning away from early morning sunlight would harm circadian rhythms, sleep-wake cycles and overall health. Groups such as religious Jews complained that moving the clocks later in the winter would prevent them from saying morning prayers after sunrise and getting to work and school on time. There are also regional differences in who will benefit most from permanent daylight saving time. Lawmakers in southern states like Florida argue it would maximize sunshine for their residents during the winter months — but some people living in the northern United States or on the western edge of time zones, like Indianapolis, wouldn’t see the sunrise. on certain winter days until 9 a.m And on the House floor, lawmakers and staff working on the issue pointed to surveys that show deep differences in public opinion about how to proceed. While 64 percent of respondents to a March 2022 YouGov poll said they wanted to stop changing the clocks twice a year, only about half of people who favored a change wanted permanent daylight saving time, while about one a third supported permanent standard time, and others were unsure. “We know the majority of Americans don’t want to keep changing the clocks back and forth,” Schakowsky said in a statement to The Post, adding that she had received calls arguing in favor of both sides. Standard time advocates don’t want kids waiting on dark winter mornings for a school bus. Proponents of permanent daylight saving time want to help businesses enjoy more sunshine during business hours, he said. A congressional aide working on the issue put it more bluntly: “We would have pissed off half the country no matter what,” said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the domestic issue publicly. discussions. The White House declined to take a position on the legislation, and in interviews, administration officials said the issue was complex and affected trade and health issues. Pallone and other lawmakers said they are waiting for the Transportation Department, which helps regulate time zone enforcement, to review the effects of permanently changing the clocks. While the transportation agency in September agreed to conduct a study, the deadline for that analysis — Dec. 31, 2023 — suggests the issue may not receive serious consideration in Congress again until 2024 at the earliest. And while round-the-clock lobbying efforts are shifting in the wake of tens of millions of dollars spent by supporters of so-called Big Pharma or Big Tech, some congressional aides joke that the debate has awakened the “Big Sleep”: concerted resistance from sleep doctors and The researchers who issued letters of support warning about permanent daylight saving time traveled to Capitol Hill to pitch lawmakers on permanent daylight saving time and significantly increased their lobbying spending, according to a review of federal disclosures. For example, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, or AASM—which in recent years had focused its advocacy on issues such as improving sleep apnea care—this year included new priorities in its federal filings: lobbying lawmakers about the Senate Sun Protection Act and “Matters Relating to Seasonal Time Changes.” AASM also doubled its lobbying spending from $70,000 in the third quarter of 2021 to $130,000 in the third quarter of 2022 and added a lobbyist who specializes in health care issues and worked for Schakowsky. The DST debate has caught the attention of the sleep-medicine academy, an official confirmed. “When the Sunshine Act passed the Senate last spring, we decided that advocating for permanent standard time should be an immediate priority,” Melissa Clark, its director of advocacy and public awareness, wrote in an email. AASM. Clark added that AASM had met with the offices of dozens of legislators to support permanent standard time. “It’s an issue that concerns everyone,” he wrote. It is an issue that resonates abroad. Mexican lawmakers passed legislation last month to end daylight saving time in most of their country, a measure that the nation’s president quickly signed into law. But not everyone agrees that change — any change — is necessary. Josh Barro, a political commentator who has repeatedly advocated keeping the current system, said neither permanent daylight saving time nor permanent standard time makes sense. “I think we have the system we have for a good reason… we have a certain number of hours of light per day and it will vary with the axial tilt of the earth. And we need a way to manage that so we wake up not long after sunrise most days,” Barro said. “It’s really government solving a coordination problem.” Beth Ann Malow, a neurologist and sleep medicine researcher at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, emphasized that she continues to favor permanent standard time, a position she testified about at a congressional hearing earlier this year. But even Malow says the United States may end up needing a compromise — moving the clock back 30 minutes and then staying that way permanently. “I know that permanent daylight saving time people and permanent daylight saving time people will be disappointed…
