Q&A of the Day – What’s The Deal with the Sunshine Protection Act?
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s entry: Submitted via Talkback: Good morning, Brian. I love listening to your show as I'm driving down to Miami, but what's happening with the daylight savings time? Thank you.
Bottom Line: Ahh, yes, fall is here and along with it will soon be yet another time change on November 2nd. And that’s due, once again, with Congresses failure to pass the Sunshine Protection Act. It’s not for a lack of Floridians trying. Once again Senator Rick Scott proposed the legislation earlier this year at the onset of this congress and Representative Vern Buchanan in House. Each has moved since having been introduced...but not much.
In the Senate the legislation has been read twice and referred to the Committe on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. That’s something, but it’s still multiple steps away from even reaching a full senate floor vote for consideration. In the House it’s a different version of a similar thing as it was first formally introduced in the House and then referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. It’s effectively in the same state in the House that it is in the senate. Just as notable...the dates the last time anything moved forward with either of these bills. The last House action on the Sunshine Protection Act took place on January 3rd, in the senate it was January the 7th. Clearly there’s no current momentum to propel these proposals forward, although the time changes themselves have historically served as catalysts for this – so maybe that’ll be the case as we get closer to November?
There are two considerations that have come into play as to why we haven’t seen a move on the legislation throughout the year. The first is what President Trump’s priorities have been. With the narrow GOP majority in the House, the focus throughout this year has squarely been on accomplishing President Trump’s ambitious agenda, largely accomplished through the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, while also cutting spending through recissions as identified by DOGE. Currently congress is attempting to work out funding legislation by the end of the month, to avoid a partial government shutdown at the start of the government’s new fiscal year which begins October 1st. The other reason there’s been a lack of momentum comes down to President Trump himself.
President Trump said this back in April: The House and Senate should push hard for more Daylight at the end of a day. Very popular and, most importantly, no more changing of the clocks, a big inconvenience and, for our government, A VERY COSTLY EVENT!!! At the same time when he was asked about the prospects of actually passing the legislation he said this: I assume people would like to have more light later, but some people want to have more light earlier because they don't want to take their kids to school in the dark ... A lot of people like it one way. A lot of people like it the other way. In also referring to it as “a 50/50 issue”.
So, what does that mean? It’s clear that President Trump would sign the legislation into law if it made it to his desk, however it’s been clear that in terms of using political capital to focus on its passage – he hasn’t been willing to go there. Now, potentially more optimistically, there may be the opportunity for that to change going forward. Next year likely be a lighter year legislatively. The second year of a presidency, coinciding with an election year almost always is. That may provide the opportunity for something that’s not a partisan issue to rise further towards the surface, it may also become the case that President Trump could become more willing to publicly rally support for the legislation. Neither of those are guarantees, however the way these play politically, it’s more likely than when the proposal is competing for space during the debate of the president’s major agenda items.
Senator Scott, along with then-Senator Rubio, were able to gain passage in the Senate in 2022, unfortunately the Nancy Pelosi-led House wouldn’t take it up at the time. While the time is set to change yet again at the onset of November, this year’s version does have time still on its side as the proposals only need to pass before the next congress in January of 2027.