At 2 a.m. on the 14th, clocks will be set one hour faster to return to Daylight Saving Time.
The clocks will be set one hour faster for the return to Daylight Saving Time (DST) at 2 a.m. on the 14th; bipartisan federal senators have reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act this week, calling for the abandonment of the four-month-only “standard time” from November to March each year. “Standard Time” and maintain daylight saving time throughout the year, so that Americans will not have to set their clocks back one hour in November; this idea is receiving more attention.
A statement from Florida Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, representing the four other Republican and three Democratic senators who co-sponsored the bill, noted that “the national call to stop the outdated practice of adjusting clocks is growing louder and louder.”
Florida’s state legislature has passed its version of the bill in 2018, as have 15 other states, including California, Oregon, Tennessee and Maine; however, states may not change their daylight saving time operations without approval from the federal Department of Transportation; congressional action is required.
Germany and other European countries began daylight saving time in 1916 during World War I to save fuel and energy; the United States was two years late, introducing daylight saving time since 1918. Congress abolished the practice after the war; however, President Roosevelt declared a return to year-round daylight saving time during World War II from 1942 to 1945.
During the energy crisis of the 1970s, the United States experimented with year-round daylight saving time from January 1974 to October 1975, but standard time returned in the winter because people didn’t like the dark winter mornings very much; from 2007 to the present, daylight saving time begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. Only Hawaii and Arizona do not use daylight saving time.
Critics argue that adjusting clocks twice a year disrupts sleep patterns and increases the risk of car accidents and heart attacks, seasonal depression and other health problems. If daylight saving time were used year-round, daylight would continue later in the winter and people would have more time to spend outdoors after work, which would be good for the economy.
A 2015 study by the Brookings Institution also found that maintaining DST reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, seasonal depression and reduces the likelihood of being robbed by 27 percent.
Democratic U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement, “Year after year, the move forward and backward will only create unnecessary confusion and harm the nation’s health and economy. Keeping daylight saving time permanently will allow people to get back the hour of daylight they need most in the winter.”
The proposal for year-round daylight saving time seems to be getting more attention after a particularly long and dark winter during the past year when the Epidemic hit hard. Senator James Lankford (R-OK) said of the bill, “In a year that seemed to be in total darkness, Senator Rubio and I offered a solution: more sunshine by making daylight savings time permanent.”
However, permanently keeping daylight saving time does not actually provide more sunlight; because of the Earth’s tilt, the sun stays on the horizon line for less time in the winter and daylight hours are shorter.
If daylight saving time were implemented year-round, it would represent sunrise and sunset times from November to March that would be one hour later than people are currently accustomed to.
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