WASHINGTON, D.C. — A bill establishing permanent daylight saving time is headed to the U.S. Senate after passage in the House of Representatives, but Senator Shelley Moore Capito questions what the potential law would mean for school children.
As the Sunshine Protection Act moves forward, Capito expressed safety concerns related to the possibility of children in northern states traveling to school before sunrise.
“If we eliminate changing our clocks, in certain areas of the country—particularly in the northern parts of our states of Montana, Minnesota, and even Illinois and Michigan—our kids are going to be going to school in total darkness,” she said on a call with West Virginia reporters last week.
The House passed the measure 308-117 last Tuesday with both Reps. Riley Moore and Carol Miller voting in favor. With proponents saying the bill would remove the burden of changing clocks, Capito pointed to one particular state’s benefit as a motivating factor.
“I know the president is in favor of it, and I think that’s because Florida very much would like the benefit of having more sunlight at certain points of the day for the tourism industry,” she said.
Capito indicated last Thursday that she would not be able to form a strong opinion on the bill until assessing the effects it could have on certain industries in West Virginia. The Senate passed a version of the Sunshine Protection Act by unanimous consent in 2022, but it never reached a vote in the House.
“I’m undecided as to what I would do because I just don’t have a good feel for the heavy impacts on agriculture and school systems in West Virginia, but I don’t want to do something that would endanger the safety of our children as they’re going to school or coming home from school,” she said.
As Capito noted, President Donald Trump has publicly pushed for permanent daylight saving time over recent years. The senator believes that support may be the deciding factor in a passage vote.
“I’m not sure who’s going to win this battle. I have a feeling that we’re going to go to a singular time because the president supports that, but I think it’s so regional. People that have opinions on it have really strong opinions, I’ve learned, so we’ll just see how the vote shakes out,” she said.