Source: Fox News
Summary
The House of Representatives has approved the Sunshine Protection Act, which would permanently shift the US onto Daylight Saving Time. The bill, approved 308-117, aims to eliminate the biannual time change and keep the country on Daylight Saving Time year-round. The legislation now heads to the Senate for consideration. Proponents argue that the change would give families more time for outdoor activities, while opponents point to past experiments with year-round Daylight Saving Time that were met with public disapproval.
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As expected, the matter has reached another stage.
Lawmakers are again trying to give people something: more daylight. The Sunshine Protection Act is a congressionally contrived temporal statute. It’s really the same amount of light – or lack thereof – at 7 p.m. under Daylight Saving Time that we could experience at 6 p.m. under Standard Time. But Congress is in the giving business. The biannual time change is maddening. Perhaps it’s an idea whose time has come.
Timing is everything. An episode involving a school custodian and a series of mismatched clocks comes to mind. Establishing a year-around time isn’t something worth losing sleep over. Most just hate the exercise.
One member spoke out in opposition, citing past experiments with year-round Daylight Saving Time that were met with public disapproval. The Senate will now consider the bill, and some people will say it’s about time. But others remember the 1970s.
George Santayana declared that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” But if you’re running an hour ahead of Daylight Saving Time, perhaps you should switch your clock back and fix it to Standard Time.
Author: Evan Null
