Is this the last year that the U.S. will change the clocks twice a year?
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent beginning next year in 2023. The move is promoted by supporters who want brighter afternoons and claim that the change will bring more economic activity.
The bill is called the Sunshine Protection Act and was unanimously approved by a voice vote. The House of Representatives will vote on the measure next and will hold a committee hearing on the matter. If the House approves the bill, it will go to President Joe Biden to sign into law.
It is not clear yet whether Biden supports the bill.
The United States resumed daylight saving time on Sunday, moving ahead of the clocks one hour. Standard time will be resumed in November. About 30 states have introduced legislation to end the changing of clocks since 2015.
Last week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on the issue. The chairman of the committee, Representative Frank Pallone, said that the loss of an hour of sleep seems to impact people for days afterward, and can wreak havoc on the sleep patterns of children and pets. Pallone wants to end clock-switching but has not yet decided which version of the clock to support, daylight standard or daylight saving.
Daylight saving has been in place in almost all of America since the 1960s. It was first tried in 1918. Year-round daylight savings time was used in World War Two, and it was adopted once again a couple of decades later in 1973 in order to reduce energy use in the midst of an oil embargo, repealing it a year later.
Currently, Arizona and Hawaii do not observe daylight saving time. The bill will allow these two states to remain on standard time, as well as Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
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