A bill to stop the clocks, stalled since 2022
No more springing forward. No more falling back. The Senate passed it unanimously. Then the House did nothing.
The Sunshine Protection Act would lock the United States onto daylight saving time, permanently. For the Eastern zone that means Eastern Daylight Time, UTC−4, all twelve months. The twice-yearly ritual (clocks jump forward on the second Sunday in March, back on the first Sunday in November) would end.
The Senate vote happened in March 2022. The bill has been reintroduced in multiple sessions since. It has never cleared the House.
Permanent DST is not permanent Standard Time
This is where almost everyone gets it wrong.
Permanent DST means year-round UTC−4. Permanent Standard Time means year-round UTC−5. Different offsets. Different sunrises. Different sunsets. The Sunshine Protection Act proposes permanent DST. It does not propose permanent Standard Time.
Under permanent DST, Eastern Time would match Atlantic Standard Time all year. Under permanent Standard Time, summer evenings would darken roughly an hour earlier than they do now. News articles routinely conflate the two. Check which offset a headline is actually describing.
What UTC−4 all year does to mornings and evenings
If the act became law, "EDT" and "EST" would both disappear. The zone would sit at UTC−4, 365 days a year.
For New York, Toronto, Philadelphia, and the rest of the zone, the trade-off is stark.
Summer evenings stay unchanged: sunset on the June solstice in New York remains 20:30.
Winter evenings gain an hour of light.
Winter mornings lose that hour. That is the objection that has killed this idea before.
The 1973 experiment lasted less than two years
The United States tried year-round DST during the energy crisis. Public backlash killed it fast. The complaint: children walking to school in pitch darkness. Morning traffic accidents. Commuters starting their day hours before the sun.
The Eastern zone stretches from the Atlantic coast west to the Michigan-Wisconsin line. Its northern cities sit above 45° N. Winter sunrises there are already late. Shift them an hour later and the morning stays black well past 8:00 AM for a large share of the zone's population.
Ontario and Québec are waiting for New York
Canada will not move alone.
Ontario passed legislation to adopt permanent DST, but the law only takes effect if New York and Québec do the same. The cross-border economy is too tightly stitched: trade, broadcasting, transportation. A one-hour rift between Toronto and New York is unworkable.
Québec has consulted. No decision.
No Canadian province in the Eastern corridor will shift solo. The whole chain (Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal, New York, Boston) would need to jump together.
The permanent Standard Time alternative
Some sleep researchers prefer permanent Standard Time. Their argument: UTC−5 keeps the clock closer to the solar day. Shifting forward in spring, they say, is what disrupts circadian rhythms.
What would permanent Standard Time look like? Summer sunsets would arrive earlier than they do now. Winter mornings would stay exactly as they are under current EST. The Sunshine Protection Act does not propose this path.
What to watch
As of late 2026, the bill has not become law. The House has never held a vote. The Senate passed it once. It has not moved through both chambers in the same Congress.
Two things to track:
- A House vote on the Sunshine Protection Act in its current form.
- A coordinated signal from New York, Ontario, and Québec that they are ready to synchronize.
If the bill passes, Eastern Time shifts to permanent UTC−4. If it does not, the current twice-yearly change continues.
Check the DST dates for the Eastern zone to see when the next change happens. If you need to convert between offsets, the EST offsets page has the full breakdown.