DST: Lawmakers Debate The Need For Time Change

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.

According To Fox Business, 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, 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"Switching in and out of daylight-saving time is outdated," Mr.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."

Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia observe daylight-saving time eight months a year, and standard time the remaining four months; Arizona, aside from the Navajo Nation, and Hawaii observe standard time year-round. The U.S. began using daylight-saving time in 1918. The Uniform Time Act in 1966 set the current policy as a way to conserve energy; Congress voted in 2005 to extend daylight-saving time by two months.

The idea was to extend the benefits of daylight-saving time for as long as possible in the spring, summer and fall, without having late-morning sunrises in the winter, said David Prerau, author of "Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time" who said he assisted lawmakers with the policy changes in 2005.

"I think the current system is about the best we can do," Dr. Prerau said. "It is not pleasant to lose an hour of sleep. But there were ways to mitigate that. It’s no different than traveling from Chicago to New York."

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.