WASHINGTON — With the spring time change just around the corner, Sen. Marco Rubio is pushing to make daylight saving time permanent — again.
Rubio, a Republican from Florida, reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act of 2023 on Thursday.
"This ritual of changing time twice a year is stupid. Locking the clock has overwhelming bipartisan and popular support. This Congress, I hope that we can finally get this done," he wrote in a release.
U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, another Floridan Republican, filed companion legislation in the House.
“There are enormous health and economic benefits to making daylight saving time permanent. Florida lawmakers have already voted to make daylight saving time permanent in my home state and Congress should pass the Sunshine Protection Act to move Florida and the rest of the country to year-round daylight saving time," Buchanan wrote.
Currently, clocks move forward an hour in March to switch to daylight saving time and move back an hour in November for standard time.
If Rubio's bill passes and is signed into law by President Joe Biden, we will no longer "fall back" to get back on standard time.
The U.S. Senate unanimously approved Rubio's Sunshine Protect Act in March 2022, but it never came up for a vote in the House. In Florida, lawmakers also voted back in 2018 to "lock the clock" and keep daylight saving time permanent, but that hasn't taken effect either because it requires federal approval, which it hasn't gotten yet.
Federal law only allows states to opt-out of daylight saving time and permanently remain on standard time. But under the Uniform Time Act of 1966, states that want to stay on daylight saving time permanently – like Florida – need congressional approval.
So, unless Congress takes action, the time changes will continue.
10 Tampa Bay's Josh Sidorowicz contributed to this report.