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March 12, 2022 03:30 am

Lawmakers Urge Congress To Make Daylight Saving Time Permanent

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wall Street Journal: It's time to Spring Forward again, as most of the U.S. shifts Sunday into daylight-saving time. If it were up to some lawmakers, the lost hour of sleep every March would be but a fixture of the past. The tradition of setting clocks forward in the spring and backward in the fall has been a source of debate and consternation for decades. Efforts to make daylight-saving time -- or, in some cases, standard time -- permanent have bubbled up in state houses over the years. But the bipartisan cause to stop the time changes has gained renewed momentum recently (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source), with lawmakers citing studies identifying the negative effects of clock changes on people's health and the economy. Eighteen states have passed legislation or resolutions in the past four years making daylight-saving time permanent, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In 2022, 28 states are weighing bills regarding the time changes, according to the group, which tracks state laws. The majority of the 68 measures seek to make daylight-saving time the permanent standard -- making the changes less likely to be swiftly enacted. Under current federal law, any state can choose to observe standard time year-round. But states can't move to follow daylight-saving time permanently without changes to federal law. A bipartisan group of senators, including Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Ed Markey (D., Mass.), reintroduced legislation in March 2021 to make daylight-saving time the year-round standard. The legislation would allow similar laws passed in states including Florida, Georgia, Delaware, Oregon and Louisiana to take effect. But the bill hasn't made much progress in the past year. "Switching in and out of daylight-saving time is outdated," Mr. Rubio said in a video message Thursday, renewing calls for action. "Let's just lock the clock once and for all and put all this stupidity behind us." [...] Lawmakers hoping to make daylight-saving time permanent say it would reduce car accidents, risks for heart attacks and reduce energy use. Some researchers, however, have questioned the role that time change plays in energy conservation and its correlation to negative health impacts.

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