U.S. Moves to Implement Year-Round Daylight Saving Time as House Passes Bill

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill to implement daylight saving time—commonly referred to as 'summer time'—year-round. However, the bill still needs to pass the Senate, so there are variables that could affect its actual implementation.

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According to the U.S. House of Representatives on July 15 (local time), the "Sunshine Protection Act," which contains these provisions, passed with 308 votes in favor and 117 against the previous day.

Daylight saving time is a system in which the clock is set one hour ahead during the longer daylight hours of spring and summer. It was adopted to allow people to make better use of sunlight during evening hours when they are awake and active. If the law is implemented, the procedure of ending daylight saving time every November and returning to standard time will be eliminated.

However, states that currently do not observe daylight saving time, or that have already decided to permanently adopt standard time, may be excluded from the year-round application of daylight saving time. If this bill is enacted, the time difference between the U.S. Eastern Time Zone and Korea will be fixed at 13 hours throughout the year. Currently, when daylight saving time is in effect in the Eastern Time Zone—which is from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November—Korea is 13 hours ahead. For the rest of the year, when standard time is observed, the time difference increases to 14 hours.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted that the practice of adjusting clocks twice a year should be abolished, and he has strongly supported this bill. The White House also stated, "By eliminating the time loss, inconvenience, and costs associated with clock changes, Americans could save hundreds of millions of dollars every year."

However, it is uncertain whether the bill will pass the Senate. Senators such as Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, oppose the bill. He pointed out that applying daylight saving time year-round would significantly delay sunrise in winter, causing students in many parts of the country to go to school in the dark.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.