U.S. Senate passes bill for permanent daylight saving time

Tuesday, March 15, the U.S. Senate approved “The Sunshine Protection Act of 2021” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio introduced last year. The bill would make daylight saving time (DST) permanent. Beginning in 2023, we would no longer have to remember which Sunday in March is “spring forward” or when we “fall back” in November.

While we have sprung forward in 2022, eliminating bi-annual clock and watch changes still requires the House of Representatives to pass the bill and then President Joseph Biden must sign it before it becomes law.

March 9, the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce of the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on the advantages of permanent DST. No action was taken by the subcommittee during the hearing.

But the chair of the full committee, Frank Pallone (D-NJ) sent a letter to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigeig requesting an analysis of how time changes impact productivity, traffic, energy consumption, consumer activity, and other societal and economically relevant factors.

In his statement, Pallone wrote, “While I have yet to decide whether I support a permanent switch to Standard or daylight saving time, it’s time we stop changing our clocks. I believe that any justifications for springing forward and falling back are either outdated or are outweighed by the serious health and economic impacts we now know are associated with the time changes”

Pallone subsequently wrote on Twitter, “I’m pleased to see momentum building after our hearing last week on the impacts of springing forward and falling back. It’s clear to me that it is time to stop changing our clocks twice a year.”

While there was little debate on the Senate floor about this momentous legislation, public opinion and state legislatures have been trying to provoke a change for several years.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), “In the last four years, 19 states have enacted legislation or passed resolutions to provide for year-round daylight saving time… “

In 2018, Florida approved a bill authorizing a permanent DST when Congress would approve it. This was Rubio’s motivation to draft the federal bill.

“Just this past weekend, we all went through that biannual ritual of changing the clock back and forth, and the disruption that comes with it. And one has to ask themselves after a while, ‘Why do we keep doing it? Why are we doing this?’” Rubio said on the Senate floor.

“So we’re doing this back-and-forth clock changing for about 16 weeks of Standard Time a year. I think the majority of the American people’s preference is just to stop the back and forth changing. But beyond that, I think their preference is — certainly at least based on today’s vote, and what we’ve heard — is to make daylight saving time permanent.”

The other 18 states that have passed legislation to eliminate time changes are, according to the NCSL, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

The first national effort to synchronize local times occurred during World War I, as an effort to save fuel and cooperate with European countries. After the war, legislation to extend this new national concept failed.

While many attribute its initial passage to agricultural interests, the opposite is true. Farmers’ lives and work are organized around the Sun, not a clock. And livestock, particularly dairy cattle, do not adjust to new schedules very quickly or well at all. So farmers were instrumental in the failure to continue DST.

Then World War II occurred and another shift was approved, which was repealed three weeks after the war ended.

Finally in 1966, the Uniform Time Act was passed. DST would return for six months of the year. Then the 1973 gas crisis occurred and President Richard Nixon and Congress established DST for 12 months. That change was also impermanent.

In 2007, the nation began starting DST in early November and ending in early March — about four months was all the public could tolerate.

Public opinion favors a permanent time but is divided between Standard and DST. According to AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, an October 2021 poll found that “43[%] want to stay on standard time year-round, while 32[%] prefer to see the clocks remain on daylight saving time. Only 25[%] like the existing state of affairs in most of the country, shifting back and forth between daylight saving time in the summer and standard time in the winter.”

Of those favoring DST year-round, 37% were adults 60 years or older. Of those respondents between 18 and 29 years, only 24% favored this alternative. Of those who are satisfied with the twice a year time adjustment, 32% were in the younger age group and only 22% were over 60 years.

If permanent DST is established, many youth sporting events will not be called because of darkness in the early spring. This was one of Rubio’s talking points — more daylight in the evenings.

Since daylight is fixed, and not legislated, more of it in the evenings means less in the mornings. So school children will be waiting for buses in the dark until after 8 a.m. in some locales.

Sleep experts prefer making Standard Time permanent, rather than DST.

“The [American Academy of Sleep Medicine] [(AASM)] cautions that making daylight saving time permanent overlooks potential health risks that can be avoided by establishing permanent standard time instead,” the academy wrote in its recent press release.

“Data clearly show that the sudden change from standard time to daylight saving increased risk of adverse cardiovascular events, mood disorders, and motor vehicle crashes,” the academy continued.

AASM concluded with the following position, “… current evidence best supports the adoption of year-round standard time, which aligns best with human circadian biology and provides distinct benefits for public health and safety.”

Making DST permanent still awaits action, but none has been scheduled in the House of Representatives. While waiting for the next step, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), “I write to urge the House of Representatives to consider and pass S. 623, a bill to make daylight saving time permanent … as soon as possible.”