CLEVELAND — How would you feel about no longer having to spring forward or fall back? Congress is expected to vote this week on the Sunshine Protection Act, a measure that would make daylight saving time the country's permanent time standard.
The Sunshine Protection Act of 2025 (H.R. 139) passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this year with overwhelming bipartisan support (48-1). The legislation would end the biannual ritual of shifting clocks.
"I think it ought to be permanent. Yeah, keep daylight saving time, not standard time, I love staying late," said Brian Kelly in Cleveland on Monday. "That extra hour at the end is more important. I hate when it gets dark early. I like when it stays light after work."
Kyra Mitchell said she thinks the current system works and there's no reason to change it.
"I like what we have now. I feel like it works out," she said. "Even though there's some times like yeah with the immediate switch it's kind of hard but I feel like it works out in the end."
Of course, with Ohio on the more western side of the Eastern time zone, that later sunset would come with a later sunrise, which would be close to 9 a.m. in late December. That would mean you'd have kids literally going to school in the dark. That's why another group of lawmakers just proposed their own similar bill, the Sunshine for Our Kids Act, making standard time the permanent switch.
Earlier this year, Scott Yates, the founder of the Lock the Clock movement, told Congress that the majority of Americans are fine with either.
"Most people don't actually prefer one or the other that much; they just want to stop the switching," said Yates.
While states can opt out of daylight saving time, they cannot opt out of standard time. This act of Congress would give states the freedom to choose prior to the measure being enacted. In Ohio, the legislature in 2023 passed a resolution urging Congress to make the permanent switch to daylight saving time.
Still, Abdullah Mason of Cleveland asked the rhetorical question, "Does daylight saving actually save daylight?"
As the WBO's lightweight champion, he and his boxing siblings act almost like farmers, up before sunrise and maintaining their daily routines around the time changes twice a year.
"I have a schedule. I go to the gym at like 4 a.m.," said Amir Mason. "So when it switches, it turns around."
Amir said he'd support adopting one time, standard or daylight saving.
"Yeah, just choose one and stick with it, and then we can work around it, you know."
If the measure passes the House, it must still clear the Senate, which approved similar legislation in 2022. President Trump is one of those who has signaled his support of this permanent switch.
