On March 15, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) pranced down the Capitol steps in a YouTube video singing “Walking on Sunshine.” Markey was celebrating the Senate unanimously passing a bill, the “Sunshine Protection Act,” with no debate, research or hearings. It would allow states to make daylight-saving time permanent. The “World’s Greatest Deliberative Body” bowing to social media complaints passed legislation that would end the twice-yearly tradition of springing the clocks an hour forward and winding them back an hour in the fall. Twitter and Facebook are credited with greatly magnifying the semi-annual public gripes about the time change. Social media caused a Senate stampede into unanimous consent action two days after the March 13 daylight-saving time change. It should be expected a change affecting so many people would get some debate – but not by the U.S. Senate in March. Supporters of the change highlighted the annoyances of clock-switching, such as losing an hour sleep each spring and early sunsets throughout the winter. They also noted clock-switching is linked to more strokes, heart attacks and car accidents. The bill would set daylight-saving time as the year-round default starting in autumn 2023. States could remain on standard time instead, but they would have to stay with it all year. Only two states, Hawaii and Arizona (nearly all counties), are currently on permanent standard time. Permanent daylight-saving means later sunrises and later sunsets. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) led the effort to bring more light to the evening hours in the winter. Rubio argued that ending the clock change could send more children outside to play instead of forcing them indoors to play videogames. But critics of year-round daylight-saving time note it also leads to darker mornings. The “new idea” of making daylight-saving time permanent is actually an “old idea” that was tried in the 1970s. Congress voted in December 1973 to put the U.S. on permanent daylight-saving time, but scrapped the idea in October 1974. Americans in northern latitudes suddenly experienced winter sunrises later than 9 a.m. in Minneapolis, Detroit, Seattle and Indianapolis. Commuters were driving to work in the dark. Three months of children waiting each day for the school bus in the dark was enough to convince Congress to repeal overwhelmingly the permanent day-light saving experiment after only 10 months. The 1973 experiment was driven by the belief that it would save energy in the middle of an energy crisis triggered by the oil boycott of the United States by OPEC. The experiment yielded no evidence of fuel savings, but it did result in reports of dark mornings leading to increases in traffic accidents. Permanent daylight-saving time also likely causes more harm than good when it comes to our health, the Academy of Heath Science reports. They believe permanent standard time is “the best option for health,” concluding our internal clocks are most closely aligned with standard time requiring sun in the morning. Nevada began daylight-saving time in 1964 when Gov. Grant Sawyer issued a proclamation matching California’s “fast time.” Sawyer, a Democrat, copied California daylight-saving propositions passed in 1949 and 1962. In 2015, Nevada Republican majorities in both legislative chambers adopted a joint resolution (AJR4) making daylight-saving time permanent throughout Nevada. It was a resolution and not a law because states don’t have the power to observe day-light saving all year. Sen. Joe Hardy (R-Boulder City) sought to achieve the same goal in 2021. His SB 153 never received a hearing. The U.S. Senate plan for permanent day-light saving faces doubts in the House. It reportedly could be weeks or months before Democratic leaders decide whether to schedule it for a vote. The current split year system amounts to a political and geographic compromise. It shouldn’t be changed without careful reflection. A full vetting should be required in the House. E-mail Jim Hartman at lawdocman1@aol.com
