- The Senate passed a bill to move the United States to permanent daylight-saving time.
- Since 1966, most Americans have been used to "springing forward" to begin DST in March.
- The Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 would end the bi-annual ritual of changing clocks.
The walls might be closing on the United States' twice-a-year ritual of changing clocks.
The US Senate unexpectedly passed the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021, a bipartisan bill to move the United States to permanent daylight-saving time, on Tuesday afternoon, two days after most of the country "sprung forward" to begin daylight-saving time.
The chamber quickly approved the bill through unanimous consent, which allows legislation to pass the Senate with a simple voice vote if no senator objects.
The legislation heads next to the House of Representatives and if passed by that chamber, to President Joe Biden's desk. Axios reported on Tuesday that GOP Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida is leading the effort to secure swift passage of the measure through the lower chamber.
"The good news is that we can get this passed. We don't have to keep doing this stupidity anymore. Why we would enshrine this in our laws and keep it for so long is beyond me," Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, one of the bill's sponsors, said on the Senate floor. "Hopefully, this is the year that this gets done. And pardon the pun, but this is an idea whose time has come."
Rubio said, however, that an amendment to the bill would delay its implementation until November 2023 in order to give the airline and travel industries, which operate on strict timetables, sufficient leeway to prepare for the change.
Various thinkers proposed versions of daylight-saving in the 19th and early 20th century, and the United States and several European countries first introduced daylight-saving time as a wartime energy conservation measure during World War I.
After the United States repealed national daylight-saving in 1919, some states kept observing daylight-saving time while others did not for decades, creating a confusing patchwork of time zones across the country.
The Uniform Time Act, passed by Congress in 1966, set daylight-saving time to begin and end at the same time each year throughout the entire country.
Since Congress last amended the Uniform Time Act in 2005, Americans "spring forward" to begin daylight-saving time at 3 am ET on the second Sunday in March and "fall back" to go to standard time at 2 am ET on the first Sunday in November.
But, in addition to the hassle of changing clocks twice a year, the energy-saving benefits of daylight-saving time are negligible to none.
Some studies have additionally linked the loss of an hour of sleep that comes with the beginning of daylight-saving time to negative health effects, such as increases in heart attacks, car accidents, and workplace injuries.
Other states that receive lots of sunlight, like Hawaii and most of Arizona, don't recognize daylight-saving time at all because they prefer to have cooler temperatures and more shade at the end of the day, not more light.
The bill would still allow those states to be exempt from permanent daylight-saving time and stay on permanent standard time.