![]() ![]() The Senate’s permanent daylight saving time proponents - including Senator Edward Markey, who’s been pushing legislation on the issue since the ’80s - say they’re finally making progress they just need a little help from Americans. But those who want to end the madness are divided: 44 percent said they want permanent daylight saving time and 13 percent want permanent standard time. A 2022 Monmouth University poll found 61 percent of respondents want to stop switching, while only 35 percent want to keep things the way they are. ![]() The fundamental problem is that while none of us like changing the clocks twice a year, we can’t agree on how to stop. While the Washington state legislature and governor have pushed for permanent daylight saving time, both Cantwell and McMorris Rodgers have declined to take a position, and their staffs were similarly noncommittal about whether the committees would bring the bill up for review. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R), who leads the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Maria Cantwell (D), who leads the Senate Commerce Committee, and Rep. The political logjam might be best encapsulated by Washington state, whose representatives control the two committees that oversee daylight saving time policy: Sen. This year, the Sunshine Protection Act won’t dodge regular procedure, and the bill’s prospects of even making it out of committee seem dim. Meanwhile, a review of daylight saving time policies by the Department of Transportation, which implements federal time zone rules, is not expected to be completed until year’s end some undecided lawmakers said they planned to wait for that before making a decision on the Sunshine Protection Act. … after senators used a legislative maneuver last year to pass their bill with no debate or committee review - shocking many of their colleagues and the White House - wary congressional staff say they’re on alert to block such an effort this year. Big Sleep) and put resistant lawmakers on notice: ![]() As the Washington Post reported, it led to more spending on lobbyists by sleep-medicine doctors (a.k.a. Sadly, last year’s failed sneak attack on clock-switching may have only galvanized the opposition. Senator Marco Rubio reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act last week, but it has little chance of passing. The bill expired at the end of the last Congress without ever getting a vote in the House. Well, that’s Sunday, and there’s no sign that the same old temporal malarkey will come to an end anytime soon. If they could just get the bill through the House, then convince President Biden to sign it, March 12, 2023, would be the last “spring forward.” The Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent, was unanimously approved by the Senate in March 2022. They informed the public that the mandatory biannual hour shift was only around 100 years old, and that we had the power to stop it. Then last year, a bold group of lawmakers blew up everything I knew about time. They’d stare off into the distance for a beat, mumble something about farmers, and we’d all move on with our lives, groggy but resigned to our fate. As a child, I would ask my parents why we had to “spring forward, fall back” each year. For my entire life, changing the clocks twice a year felt infuriating yet inevitable.
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