Congress can’t seem to figure out how to exercise its constitutional authority to pass fiscally responsible budgets, declare war, or do most of the other things that the American founders intended for it to do. But when it comes to messing with the time of day, Congress seemingly can’t resist. 

On July 14, the House of Representatives passed the so-called Sunshine Protection Act of 2025. The bill, which “protects” sunshine in the evening at the expense of sunshine in the morning, passed by a large margin (308-117) but with little apparent consideration of its consequences. In the hopes that the Senate will engage in more serious debate on this matter, here are a few suggestions of things it should consider:

The American Heritage Dictionary defines “noon” as “midday,” as the “time or point in the sun’s path at which the sun is on the local meridian,” and as the “highest point; the zenith.” So, noon is the time of day when the sun is most straight overhead. At least that’s true on standard time.

With the sun overhead at midday, it follows that the number of hours of daylight is equal on either side of noon. In March or September, when days are roughly 12 hours long, the sun rises at about 6 a.m. and sets at about 6 p.m. — again, on standard time. This even distribution of sunlight — half in the morning, half after noon — is convenient, as most people want to enjoy as much daylight as possible in the evening without having to start their day in the dark.

But this equation shifts in the late spring and summertime, when the days are long. If there are, say, 15 hours of daylight in June (the exact number depends on one’s latitude), then the sun naturally rises at about 4:30 a.m. and sets at about 7:30 p.m. Most Americans, no longer living on farms, have little desire to be awakened by sunlight coming through their window at 4:30 in the morning. So, they’d rather “add” an hour to the evening daylight, extending it to 8:30 p.m., while having the sun rise an hour later in the morning. This is accomplished by switching to Daylight Saving Time, which moves clocks forward an hour. 

Under Daylight Saving Time, 4:30 a.m. is relabeled as 5:30 a.m., noon is relabeled as 1 p.m., and so on. As a result, the sun is no longer directly overhead at noon — it’s overhead at 1 p.m., instead — but summertime daylight is apportioned more to most people’s liking.

Moving the clocks forward an hour doesn’t work so well, however, in the late fall and wintertime, when days are short. As Sen. Tom Cotton observed, applying Daylight Saving Time year-round would “push winter sunrises to an absurdly late hour,” and “kids would either walk to school in the pitch black or schools would have to push back start times.”

Sen. Cotton is absolutely right. For example, if there are, say, 9 hours of daylight in December, the sun rises at about 7:30 a.m. and sets at about 4:30 p.m. Shifting clocks to Daylight Saving Time would mean that the sun wouldn’t rise until roughly 8:30 in the morning in the late fall or winter.

In many places, the effect would be even worse. According to timeanddate.com, in Omaha, Nebraska, the sun wouldn’t rise before 8:45 a.m. for 31 consecutive days (Dec. 20 to Jan. 19). It wouldn’t rise before 8:45 a.m. for 39 consecutive days in Salt Lake City (Dec. 16 to Jan. 23), 47 consecutive days in Seattle (Dec. 9 to Jan. 24), 59 consecutive days in Detroit (Dec. 5 to Feb. 1), and 94 consecutive days — more than three months — in Bismark, North Dakota (Nov. 15 to Feb. 16).

On Christmas morning, the sun wouldn’t rise until 9:12 a.m. in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 9:20 a.m. in Missoula, Montana, and 9:34 a.m. in Minot, North Dakota. 

As far south as Atlanta (where it would always be light by 8:45 a.m.), the sun wouldn’t rise before 8:30 a.m. for 61 consecutive days (from Dec. 8 to Feb. 6). Even in Miami, perhaps the major city where this change would make the most sense, the sun now rises by 7:30 a.m. almost every single day of the year — it will do so on 364 of the next 365 days (all but March 14, 2027, when it will rise at 7:31 a.m.). Under permanent Daylight Saving Time, however, the sun wouldn’t rise before 8:00 A.M. in Miami for 56 consecutive days (Dec. 16 to Feb. 9), matching the number of days in Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak.

In short, adopting Daylight Saving Time year-round would make winter mornings rather dark and depressing across America.

Eliminating Daylight Saving Time altogether, another proposal floated by some, would present the opposite problem — too much sun during summertime mornings, achieved at the expense of evening sun. On standard time, the sun would rise before 4:30 a.m. in New York City during the entire month of June, while it would set by around 7:30 — versus rising an hour later and setting at about 8:30 under the current arrangement. 

As these examples demonstrate, the current scenario of having Daylight Saving Time be in effect for about 8 months of the year — from early March through October, but not during the winter months — works quite well for most Americans. Under this arrangement, Americans enjoy as much sun as possible in the evenings while still having sun in the mornings. The small price we pay for that pleasant outcome is having to change our clocks on 2 nights out of 365. 

Those who find this too challenging would surely find it more difficult to spend their winter mornings in darkness.

Instituting permanent Daylight Saving Time on a nationwide basis is really just the same thing as shifting everybody one time zone to the east. When places on Pacific Standard Time, for example, switch to Daylight Saving Time, they are effectively shifting to Mountain Standard Time. So, Los Angeles moves to Denver’s time, while Denver moves to Chicago’s, Chicago to New York’s, and New York to Nova Scotia’s. Again, this works well in the summer and for most of the spring and fall, but effectively shifting one time zone to the east doesn’t work so well when the sun is in the Southern Hemisphere and there’s no extra sunlight to “save.”

Florida Rep. Vern Buchanan, who introduced the Sunshine Protection Act in the House, claims that “the evidence is clear that permanent daylight saving time can improve public health” and “reduce traffic accidents.” But it’s quite hard to see how having people get up in the dead of winter and drive to work or school in the dark is conducive to either of these two results. 

We’re living in an era in which policymakers seem to feel the need to repeat the failed experiments of the 1960s and 1970s — such as not enforcing laws in our cities and wondering why crime rises. This would be a repeat of another failed experiment. When Congress passed legislation similar to the Sunshine Protection Act in 1973, implementing Daylight Saving Time year-round, it lasted only 10 months before Congress repealed it — such was the public outcry. Soon after that short-lived legislation was implemented, a Utah congressman named Gunn McKay said that “instituting it [Daylight Saving Time] on a year-around basis is an obvious mistake. There have been needless accidents and fatalities in the mornings with children going to school in the dark.”

Daylight Saving Time is actually a well-conceived idea that helps Americans enjoy summertime more fully. It’s a foolish idea to apply in the wintertime. One hopes that the Senate sees this more clearly than the House did.

Jeffrey H. Anderson is president of the American Main Street Initiative and served as director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2017 to 2021.