On 2026-07-28 10:32 AM, Tim Parenti wrote:
On Tue, 28 Jul 2026 at 10:15, Brooks Harris via tz<[email protected]> wrote:
It says "A competing House measure, introduced in early July, would lock
the clock on standard time. ". Which leads to:
H.R.9638 - Sunshine for Our Kids Act of 2026
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9638/text
How might this work? How does the legal process relate to H.R. 139? Can
both bills pass, or has H.R. 139 preempted H.R.9638?
In short, and eliding over some "US civics class" nuance— Whichever bill
passes both chambers in identical form and then receives the President's
signature first becomes law first. H.R. 139, having passed the House on 14
July, has the head start in this regard.
Given that the bills kind of "do the opposite" of each other, it is
unlikely that a second related bill would progress far enough to cause
conflicts without first being amended or re-drafted entirely. This is the
kind of thing that various staffers and legal experts on Capitol Hill are
supposed to help catch long before it happens.
(It's not clear to me that H.R.9638 would actually "lock the clock on
standard time", because it seems to give states the option to continue DST.
Is that how you read it?)
That is how I read it as well. By contrast to H.R. 139, which does not
allow states optionality unless previously opted-out, H.R. 9638 would make
standard time the default nationwide, while inverting and actually
expanding states' optionality, allowing them to choose to deviate either by
continuing seasonal DST as-is or adopting DST year-round. I note that H.R.
9638 also contains an explicit delay provision to "the first Sunday of
November that first occurs after the date of the enactment".
Not long enough, of course. Meantime H.R. 139 doesn't state any start date.
Many people are frustrated that Congress "can't get anything done". I
think that would be the best outcome in this case.
But TzDb and others had better be prepared. Thanks to you and Paul for
working on the [SPECULATIVE] options.
I do wish members of Congress and their aids could somehow be informed
of these technical difficulties. It might change their opinions. I've
tried to reach my Senators, and got automatic no-reply responses. Any
ideas how?
-Brooks Harris
--
Tim Parenti
