My thoughts on the Senate's agreement on permanent Daylight Saving Time
Anthony Adragna, Burgess Everett and Sarah Ferris, writing for Politico
A bipartisan group of senators has tried and failed, for Congress after Congress, to keep America on daylight saving time permanently. Until Tuesday, when their bright idea finally cleared the chamber.
Just two days after the nation’s latest stressful “spring forward” to the later sunsets of daylight saving time, the Senate unanimously and surprisingly passed Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) bill to lock the clocks. The quick and consequential move happened so fast that several senators said afterward they were unaware of what had just happened.
I agree with doing away with the clock changing. But I don’t agree with staying on Daylight Saving Time. Like Arizona, we should stay on Standard Time year around. Here’s why. Living in the North East, staying on Daylight Saving Time would mean that us northern states will endure dark winter mornings under the new schedule.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer: “How are people going to feel at 7 o’clock in the morning in December, when they put their kids out on the street to catch the school bus, and it’s dead, flat dark?” Hoyer said.
Congress tried a permanent Daylight Saving Time in the 1970s, but quickly reversed course on the move amid widespread public outcry over the switch. Maybe we should learn something from history.