Sunshine Protection Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, today, the Senate has finally delivered on something Americans all over the country want: to never have to change their clocks again.

My colleague Senator Rubio and I have finally passed the Sunshine Protection Act, a bipartisan bill to finally make daylight saving time permanent.

This past weekend, Americans from Washington State to Florida had to lose an hour of sleep for absolutely no reason. This is a burden and a headache we don't need. Any parent who has worked so hard to get a newborn or a toddler on a regular sleeping schedule understands the absolute chaos changing our clocks creates and for no good reason. There is enough going on as it is, and we can fix this one inconvenience and stress pretty easily.

And if the House follows the lead of the U.S. Senate, we can make it so no one anywhere has to change their clocks by making daylight saving time permanent.

I hope my colleagues in the House and everyone can understand that no one wants to see the Sun set at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, which it currently does in the winter for those of us on the west coast.

In just this Congress, we have passed major bipartisan bills to strengthen supply chains and promote American manufacturing and make a generational investment in our infrastructure. Let's keep up that bipartisanship and make daylight saving time permanent.

Voters throughout the Pacific time zone have made clear they are ready for permanent daylight saving time. In California, Oregon, Idaho, and my home State of Washington, we have all passed laws to adopt permanent daylight saving time as soon as Congress acts. So many other States are on the same page. These States need us to take action at the Federal level.

This is a simple, commonsense measure that we can all take back to our constituents that does away with the completely unnecessary inconvenience in everyone's lives. No more dark afternoons in the winter. No more losing an hour of sleep every spring. We want more sunshine during our most productive waking hours.

I have said it before, and I will say it again: Americans want more sunshine and less depression. People in this country all the way from Seattle to Miami want the Sunshine Protection Act.

We got it passed here in the Senate. Now the clock is ticking to get the job done so we don't have to switch our clocks again.

So I urge my colleagues in the House to act swiftly, as we have done, to get this bill on President Biden's desk and deliver sunshine to Americans across the country.

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