Everyone Was Surprised By The Senate Passing Permanent Daylight Saving Time. Especially The Senators.

An anonymous reader shares a report: The Senate's unanimous passage of a bill to make daylight saving time permanent stunned many Americans, not least of which the senators themselves. In a twist the Founding Fathers likely did not anticipate, quirky Senate conventions and a decision by staff in Sen. Tom Cotton's office may result in an overhaul in the nation's time zones. Reporters and politicos were caught off guard Tuesday afternoon when the Sunshine Protection Act sailed through the Senate without issue, with no senators speaking up to object to it passing by unanimous consent. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, serving as Senate chair overseeing the motion at the time, broke composure, burst into a grin, and whispered, "Yes!" "I was surprised that someone didn't object," she told BuzzFeed News the next day, while noting that Arizona does not change its clocks, "because we're smart." Any single senator could have blocked the daylight saving bill from passing but many didn't know it was even happening. Sen. Rick Scott, a permanent daylight saving time proponent who signed a similar bill into law when he was governor of Florida, said he would have gone to give a speech on the Senate floor if he had known. Asked to re-create his reaction to the news, Sen. Chris Coons issued a series of shocked stammers that is impossible to phonetically translate. One Senate source with knowledge of the situation said Sen. Tom Cotton vehemently opposes making daylight saving time permanent. "No comment," Cotton told BuzzFeed News when asked if he opposed the bill. The source said that Cotton would have objected to the unanimous consent request, but his staff never told him it was happening.

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