How would changing daylight saving time affect the DC region?

WASHINGTON - Whether you love him or hate him, President-Elect Donald Trump posted online recently about an effort that many Democrats and Republicans seem to agree on: they are tired of changing their clocks every November and March.

Contrary to popular belief that daylight saving time had to do with farming and crop cycles, the concept of changing the clocks had its roots in the conservation of fuel during World War I, when it was first implemented to maximize daylight hours. 

It began being observed with the passage of the Standard Time Act of March 19, 1918. Farmers actually hated the practice of daylight saving time, and the act was quickly dropped by Congress following the end of World War I. Though some localized areas (like New York City) carried on the practice, it was more of a localized option and not something mandated by the federal government. 

During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt brought the practice back on February 9, 1942, though he called it War Time and not daylight saving time. It officially ended when World War II came to an end in 1945. It was not until the passage of the Uniform Time Act of 1966 that Daylight Saving Time became commonplace, though individual states could opt out of the practice if they would like. 

As of 2024, the only two U.S. states that do not observe Daylight Saving Time are Arizona and Hawaii. The goal of daylight saving time was simple: conserve U.S. energy consumption by taking advantage of more daylight, something that many Americans believe is negligible in the modern world.

How would changing daylight saving time affect the DC region?

Trump is far from the first to speak of a desire to end the practice. In recent history, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 to the 117th Congress, where it met with unanimous approval from both sides of the aisle. The bill then stalled in the House of Representatives and failed to come to a vote, subsequently expiring at the end of the final session of Congress that year. The bill was reintroduced in 2023 with similar results, and through 2024 no senator has reintroduced the bill that seemingly has the popular support of the general public. Fox Business reported on a national poll last year that found that 74% of Americans believe we should put an end to the twice-a-year changing of the clocks.

But then there is the question of which direction to go in. President-Elect Trump's post on the social media site X seemed to indicate he would eliminate daylight saving time, while the most recent iterations of the Sunshine Protection Act wanted to eliminate Standard Time and make Daylight Saving Time the law of the land. So how would life change here in the D.C. region depending on which ended up being true?

How would changing daylight saving time affect the DC region?

If President-Elect Trump stuck by his post and eliminated daylight saving time altogether, then it is the summertime when we would notice the most drastic changes. Imagine waking up on a morning in late June, the bright sun shining through your window. You panic, thinking you forgot to set your alarm, slept in, and missed work! Then you glance at your clock and realize it is only 5 a.m. This could be the case if Standard Time became the law of the land! During late spring and early summer, the sun would rise before 5 a.m. Of course, early to rise, early to shine, but also early to set in the case of the sun. Gone would be those late summer nights where some daylight is still visible as the 9 p.m. hour approaches. The sun would never set after 8 p.m. in D.C. again.

Now, if the Sunshine Protection Act ended up coming to pass and daylight saving time became the law of the land, the most notable change would come at the opposite time of the year, the winter. Mornings would be darker, with the sun not rising until after 8 a.m. for much of December and January. However, it would also stay out longer. Your evening commute home would still have some daylight to it. The sun would never again set before 5:30 p.m. in DC. The benefit, of course, is you would get to keep your late summer nights with extra daylight. This certainly seems to be the more popular choice for many.

But what do you think? If we are indeed coming to the end of changing the clocks, what time would you like to see become permanent?