Efforts continue to lock in on Daylight Saving Time

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida recently told The Washington Times that he and colleagues who support making Daylight Saving Time (DST) permanent will bring back the Sunshine Protection Act in 2023. “We’ll keep trying,” he said.

 

Reporter Tom Howell Jr. said that Sen. Rubio expressed disappointment that the U.S. House of Representatives “dawdled” and failed to take up the bill in the 2022 session. The Senate approved the bill by unanimous consent in March 2022.

Sen. Rubio

 

Howell reported that an increasing number of lawmakers are saying that “changing the clocks every March and November is a silly and antiquated act,” so he expects the debate on the subject will carry over into the current year. 

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, also of Florida, tag-teamed with Sen. Rubio as primary advocates of the Sunshine Protection Act. They suggest that there are health-related benefits and advantages of making DST permanent all year-round.

 

Sen. Scott

“The Journal of Environmental Psychology found that DST increased pedestrian activity by 62% and cyclists’ activity by 38% because of additional daylight,” according to the two Florida Republicans. 

With new leadership in the House, the political climate could become more supportive for standardizing DST as the law of the land in 2023. Any legislation would have to pass through the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Its new Republican chair is Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state.\

 

She was raised in Kettle Falls, Wash., near the Columbia River in the extreme northeast corner of the state, not too far from British Columbia, Canada. Her family owned an orchard and ran a fruit stand. 

Rep. Rodgers was first elected to Congress in 2004. She was served as a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee since 2010. 

Her home state of Washington is one of 19 states that have passed legislation or approved resolutions to encourage Congress to make DST the norm year-round, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. 

The other states are: Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming. (Californians have voted in favor of a ballot measure making DST permanent, but the legislature has not yet acted.) 

North Carolina is missing from this listing, but don’t blame the state house. In 2021, legislators in the house approved a bill to endorse year-round DST by a vote of 100-16. The bill was championed by Rep. Jason Saine, R-Lincolnton.

 

Rep. Saine

A companion bill was introduced in the senate in 2021 by Sen. Vickie Sawyer, R-Mooresville, with backing from prominent primary co-sponsors Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Spruce Pine, and Sen. Jim Perry, R-Kinston. 

Additionally, other co-sponsors included three with coastal ties – Sen. Norman Sanderson, R-Arapahoe, Sen. Michael Lazzara, R-Jacksonville and Sen. Michael Lee, R-Wilmington. 

The senate bill was dumped into the Senate Rules and Operations Committee chaired by Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Southport, and mysteriously, it never saw the light of day. This should not have been allowed to happen. 

One of North Carolina’s leading industry’s is travel and tourism. Writing for National Geographic, Brian Handwerk reported that “DST is a tonic for the tourism industry.” Sen. Rabon should take a big swig to get his head straight. 

Consider the advice of Kurt Janson of the Tourism Alliance in the United Kingdom: “That extra hour of daylight in the evening has a much larger impact on people’s ability to quit work and do something and engage in outdoor recreation.”

 

The U.S. tourism industry experiences a boost of about $5.6 billion annually under DST, Janson said.