The biannual time change may soon come to an end as lawmakers will once more debate making daylight saving time permanent. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act on Thursday. The bill was overwhelmingly adopted by the Senate last year but never received a vote in the House.
“It’s silly to change the time twice a year. Most of the public and members of both parties support locking the clock. I hope that we can finally resolve this during this Congress “In a statement, Rubio stated.
Companion legislation was introduced in the House by Representative Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.). The seasonal time change, which was first practiced in the US more than a century ago, has been called into question by health organizations.
According to a March 2022 YouGov poll, more than two-thirds of Americans want to cease changing their clocks. According to research published in the journal Current Biology, year-round DST may avert 36,550 deer deaths, 33 human fatalities, 2,054 human injuries, and $1.19 billion in collision expenses yearly.
In the 1970s, Congress last permanently instituted Daylight Saving Time. Yet as the early morning darkness became hazardous for schoolchildren and public opinion altered, the decision was overturned in less than a year. The following time change will occur on March 12 at 2 am, marking the return of daylight saving time. In order to advance the clocks one hour, we lose an hour.
As this was happening, daylight saving time was extended by around four weeks by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. It had previously run from April to October. It now takes place from the first Sunday in November to the second Sunday in March.
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Similar Daylight Saving Time Bill Hit Roadblocks
Together with Democratic Senators. Alex Padilla, Ed Markey, Tina Smith, Ron Wyden, Martin Heinrich, Republican Sens. James Lankford, Tommy Tuberville, Bill Hagerty, Rick Scott, Cindy Hyde-Smith, and Rand Paul have joined Rubio in supporting the measure in the Senate.
On Thursday, Florida Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan presented a similar bill in the House. Notwithstanding Pelosi’s claims to the contrary, the bill last year encountered opposition in the House due to differences over whether standard time or daylight saving time should be made permanent.
During the shortest months of the year, standard time permits more early daylight. Yet, proponents of the law contend that greater sunlight in the evenings can help with a variety of issues, from lowering the number of auto accidents to maintaining the sanity of young moms.
Even a 2015 Brookings Institution analysis said that the more hours the sun is out had a 27 percent negative impact on robberies.
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