Brighter afternoons and more economic activity are the reasons why the U.S. Senate passed legislation that has brought an end to daylight savings time.
Beginning in 2023, the twice-annual changing of clocks will no longer be applicable for those who felt like they were losing time to do the things they loved. The Senate approved and passed the measure, called the Sunshine Act, on Tuesday, Mar. 15, unanimously by voice vote. The House of Representatives, which has held a committee hearing on the matter, must still pass the bill before it can go to President Joe Biden to sign.
There’s no word from the White House on whether or not Biden supports it, and a spokesperson for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declined to say if she supports the measure, but said she was reviewing it closely.
Senator Marco Rubio, one of the bill’s sponsors, said supporters agreed the change would not take place until November 2023 after input from airlines and broadcasters.
The change would help enable children to play outdoors later and reduce seasonal depression, according to supporters.
“I know this is not the most important issue confronting America, but it’s one of those issues where there’s a lot of agreement,” Rubio said. “If we can get this passed, we don’t have to do this stupidity anymore.”
“Pardon the pun, but this is an idea whose time has come,” he added.
However, there is pushback as the National Association of Convenience Stores opposes the change, telling Congress this month “we should not have kids going to school in the dark.”
This past Sunday, most of the U.S. resumed daylight savings time, moving ahead one hour, and will resume standard time this coming November.
Daylight saving time has been in place in nearly all of the United States since the 1960s after being first tried in 1918. Year-round daylight savings time was used during World War II and adopted again in 1973 in a bid to reduce energy use because of an oil embargo and repealed a year later.
The bill would allow Arizona and Hawaii, which do not observe daylight saving time, to remain on standard time as well as American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.