The civic record
Read. Follow. Verify.Pennsylvania House Bill 119 Prohibits Daylight Saving Time and Mandates Eastern Standard Time Year-Round
Last action · January 16, 2025: Referred to INTERGOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS AND OPERATIONS, Jan. 16, 2025Sponsors: Russ Diamond and 11 others
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What This Bill Would Do
Pennsylvania House Bill 119 mandates Eastern Standard Time as the sole legal time standard throughout the Commonwealth and prohibits the use of daylight saving time, affecting all municipalities, courts, contracts, and business transactions starting 60 days after enactment.
Residents and businesses will remain on Eastern Standard Time year-round without advancing clocks by one hour during warmer months, aligning all official acts, municipal ordinances, and legal documents strictly to the 75th meridian solar time unless superseded by an act of Congress.
- Daylight saving time in the United States is governed federally by the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which allows states to exempt themselves from seasonal time changes only by opting out entirely to standard time, as Hawaii and Arizona have done. context
Who It Would Affect
Groups the bill's text would affect if enacted, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
municipalities
Counties, cities, boroughs, towns, and townships are prohibited from adopting different time standards and see any conflicting local ordinances declared void.
residents and businesses
All public, legal, commercial, and private contracts, deeds, wills, and notices must be interpreted using eastern standard time without seasonal time shifts.
Key Facts
You don't have to trust us. Each fact below is taken straight from the official document - click any one to see the exact passage, highlighted in the original.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will Pennsylvania still participate in changing clocks forward in the spring?
Can local cities or towns in Pennsylvania choose to keep daylight saving time?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
Currently in committee. The next step in the legislative lifecycle is Floor Vote.
Procedural history
1 action- Jan 16, 2025HouseCommitteeReferred to INTERGOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS AND OPERATIONS, Jan. 16, 2025
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
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Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Abolition of Seasonal Time Changes
The bill updates foundational 19th-century time legislation (the act of April 13, 1887) to permanently bar daylight saving time unless preempted by federal congressional action.
Connected Entities
Sources
www.palegis.us
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance65How much this matters to a regular citizen
- Controversy50Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz30Current news / social attention level
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