This bill would move Washington to permanent standard time by amending RCW 1.20.050 to define "standard time for the state of Washington" as the time zone designated by the U.S. Department of Transportation under the Uniform Time Act (by reference to coordinated universal time), to state that Washington elects not to observe daylight saving time, and to bar any county, city, code city, or other political subdivision from adopting daylight saving time or any time other than the state's standard time unless a different time is established on a national basis. The amendment preserves that U.S. law controls standard time for common carriers in interstate commerce and the timing of acts by U.S. officers or departments, and it excepts areas entirely under federal control from the local prohibition. The bill also amends RCW 35A.21.190 to prohibit code cities from observing daylight saving time other than as authorized by RCW 1.20.050, and it repeals several existing provisions tied to the 2019 session law (including RCW 1.20.051, RCW 1.20.052, RCW 1.20.055 and multiple uncodified sections of 2019 c 297). It creates a new section whose content is to effect some of these repeals. The bill includes legislative findings asserting health, safety, and economic harms from the biannual clock change and asserting benefits from adopting permanent standard time. This is a statutory modification and repeal package rather than a criminal or penalty change: it creates a permanent time policy, amends existing statutes, and repeals specified prior provisions. The bill was prefiled 12/09/25, read first time 01/12/26, and referred to the Committee on State Government & Tribal Relations. The extracted text does not include an effective date or implementation schedule, it does not include the full text of the 2019 provisions being repealed (so practical effects tied to those repeals are uncertain), and some bracketed edits appear but the prior language is not shown, leaving certain interpretive details unclear.

If enacted, Washington would stop changing clocks twice a year and keep one fixed statewide time year-round, so governments, schools, transit agencies, businesses, health systems, and households would no longer need to plan for or pay for the biannual clock change. That likely lowers short-term administrative work and recurring costs tied to adjusting schedules, payroll, and technology, and may reduce disruption to workers and vulnerable residents; however, federally governed schedules for interstate carriers and federal officers would still control where they apply, so some coordination with national timetables would still be required. The people most affected are counties, cities (including code cities), state agencies, school districts, transit providers, businesses, health care systems, and residents who currently adjust operations for daylight saving time: local governments lose the option to observe daylight saving time on their own, which narrows their scheduling choices but could simplify operations and cut recurring costs. Important details that affect practical rollout are missing: the bill text here does not give an effective date, implementation steps, or the content of the 2019 provisions it repeals, so timing, transition responsibilities, and how conflicts with federal rules or neighboring jurisdictions would be handled remain unclear.