U.S. citizens will set back their clocks on Sunday for what could be the final time, as legislation permanently ending daylight saving nears potential passage in Congress.
The Senate unanimously passed a bill that would end daylight savings time earlier this year, but the legislation still needs to pass the House before it can be signed by President Joe Biden. If passed, it would not go into effect until 2023, giving citizens a chance to adjust.
ENDING DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME WOULD REDUCE ROADKILL
“We don’t have to keep doing this stupidity anymore. Why we would enshrine this in our laws and keep it for so long is beyond me,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said when introducing the bill in the Senate back in May. “Hopefully, this is the year that this gets done. And pardon the pun, but this is an idea whose time has come.”
Benjamin Franklin was an early supporter of the concept of daylight saving time as a means to save energy. Daylight saving was first introduced in the United States in 1918 as an energy saving measure during World War I, and another adjustment to clocks known as “war time” was implemented from 1942-1945 during World War II. The practice became standard in 1966, with brief adjustments in the 1970s.
Congress has previously passed legislation that would end the time change in the 1970s, but it was repealed after reports that darker winter mornings had led to more car accidents. The concern over car accidents and darker mornings in Northern states is still prevalent in the House. If passed, some cities like Indianapolis would not see sunrise until 9 a.m. in the winter, according to the Washington Post.
States and U.S. territories like Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and most of Arizona already do not observe daylight saving time. Nineteen other states have passed laws or resolutions to end the practice if passed by Congress.
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The 2022 Daylight saving time will end at 2 a.m. on the East Coast, with the spring forward beginning in March. Nearly two-thirds of Americans want to end the biannual clock changes, according to an Economist/YouGov poll.
