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Carlo Vellandi

Daylight Savings Time: End the Absurdity


Sunday, November 6, all the United States – except for Arizona and Hawaii – moved their clocks back one hour to mark the end of Daylight Savings Time until next March. Spring forward, fall back: less sleep, more sleep. When will we put an end to this needless practice, and what will it take to make it happen?


In November 2018, in California, voters passed Proposition 7 by over 60%, authorizing the State Legislature to introduce a bill changing the dates and times of Daylight Savings Time (DST). This past year, Assembly Bill 2868 was introduced by Orange County Assemblyman Steven Choi to make DST permanent, year-round. It needed a two-thirds majority in both the Assembly and the State Senate to pass; it failed in the Assembly.


“[Changing the clocks] is not needed,” says Sophomore Griffin Kushen. “I like waking up to the sun in the morning.”


While similar legislation may be introduced in the State Legislature again, there needs to be change at the federal level for the absurdity to finally end. Current federal law allows states to adopt year-round standard time – like what exists in Arizona – but it does not permit year-round DST time.


This year, the United States Senate unanimously approved a bill called the Sunshine Protection Act (S.623), introduced by US Senator Marco Rubio out of Florida. This bill makes daylight savings time the new, permanent standard time, effective November 5, 2023. More progress!


But, the measure has yet to be passed by the United State House of Representatives, nor has it been signed into law by President Joe Biden.


“I don’t find it to be that big of a deal, honestly,” explains Junior Paige Hartzog. “I think [DST] is a good change for some people.”


Either way, we could keep time zones straight and body clocks in rhythm if the bi-annual hour change ended. For the record, it is possible to spring back and fall forward, so that saying never really helps.


The bottom-line: until legislation makes it through the US House of Representatives and is signed by the President, and until the State Assembly votes in support of a new measure to make DST permanent here in California with the Governor’s signature, we will be stuck with our government’s irrational time warp, losing an hour each spring and gaining one each fall.


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