A4 THE BULLETIN • SUNDAY, MARCH 14, 2021
Could today’s time change be the last?
BY ORION DONOVAN-SMITH
The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.)
Congress may be more divided
than ever, but there’s one thing Re-
publicans and Democrats can agree
on: No one likes losing an hour of
sleep when the nation “springs for-
ward” at the start of daylight saving
time every March.
Momentum has been building
across the country in recent years to
do away with the twice-yearly switch
between daylight saving and standard
time. Starting in 2018, when Florida’s
legislature became the first to pass a
law to adopt year-round daylight sav-
ing time, 14 other states have followed
suit.
“Daylight saving time has never
saved us from anything,” fictional
New Hampshire Rep. Jonah Ryan said
on HBO’s “Veep” in 2017, a likely cat-
alyst for the veritable tidal wave of an-
ti-time change legislation that swept
the country soon thereafter.
State lawmakers in Washington
passed legislation to “ditch the switch”
in 2019, and Idaho’s legislature ad-
opted a bill a year later that would al-
low North Idaho to follow Washing-
ton’s lead. Oregon’s legislature also has
voted to ditch standard time.
There’s just one problem: While
states can opt out of daylight saving
time — as Hawaii and most of Ar-
izona have done — federal law re-
quires an act of Congress to allow
states to adopt daylight saving time on
a permanent basis.
Northwest push
Lawmakers in both the House
and Senate have introduced biparti-
san bills to let states like Washington,
along with north Idaho, permanently
switch to daylight saving time. Sen.
Ron Wyden, D-Ore., was among
eight senators who reintroduced the
“Sunshine Protection Act of 2021” on
Tuesday.
“Springing forward and falling
back year after year only creates un-
necessary confusion while harming
Americans’ health and our economy,”
Wyden said in a statement. “Making
Daylight Saving permanent would
give folks an hour back of sunshine
during the winter months when we
need it most.”
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.,
co-sponsored the bill in the previous
Congress and plans to do so again,
Spring forward
Did you remember to set your clocks
ahead one hour this morning?
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin file
A doe pauses to check her surroundings while feeding on a patch of tall grass near Greenwood Avenue in Bend shortly before sunrise
last year.
her office said.
“Moving to permanent daylight
saving time here in Washington state
isn’t just a smart move for public
health, safety, and our economy — it’s
the overwhelming will of the peo-
ple,” Murray said in a statement. “The
state has taken action, and I am deter-
mined to make this policy a reality for
us at the federal level.
Democratic Rep. Adam Smith said
the consensus in his district, which
stretches from Tacoma to Bellevue, is
that the bad effects of the twice-yearly
switch outweigh the good.
“After many conversations with my
constituents and community leaders,
we all agree — daylight savings time
should be permanent,” Smith said in
a statement. “ After a 100-year experi-
ment with shifting our clocks back and
forth, the practice has only succeeded
in increasing energy usage, creating a
confusing map of varying time zones,
and disrupting sleep schedules.”
Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Republican
who represents Central Washington,
co-sponsored another bill with the
same goal on Monday.
It started as a joke
Benjamin Franklin suggested the
idea of daylight saving time — as a
joke — in a 1784 essay, but the United
States didn’t adopt the system until
1918, as a World War I-era effort to
conserve fuel and electricity by ex-
tending daylight hours.
The government abolished daylight
saving time at the federal level after
the war, but some states kept using
it. The resulting confusion led Con-
gress to pass the Uniform Time Act
in 1966, which reimposed the spring-
time switch to daylight saving time
across the country but gave states the
ability to opt out.
The U.S. Department of Transpor-
tation, which enforces time zones and
daylight saving time, maintains day-
light saving time saves energy and re-
duces crime and traffic accidents. Pro-
ponents of never again “falling back”
to standard time tend to agree, and
wonder why the nation doesn’t just
stick with daylight time all the time.
“It’s just annoying — and not only
is it annoying, it wreaks havoc on peo-
ple’s health,” said Washington state Rep.
Marcus Riccelli, a Spokane Democrat
who sponsored that state’s bipartisan
bill to abolish daylight saving time.
Research has shown “springing for-
ward” causes lost sleep and increases
the risk of stroke and heart attack. A
2020 study found the switch increases
the risk of fatal traffic accidents by
6% for a week each March, estimating
about 28 fatal crashes could be pre-
vented each year if the U.S. did away
with the annual change.
University of Washington law pro-
fessor Steve Calandrillo has argued
adopting permanent daylight saving
time would reduce crime, pointing to
data showing crime rates rise during
darkness at the end of the day. More
early-morning darkness — the effect
of daylight saving time — does not
bring the same spike in crime.
‘Fascinating ... how much
consensus there is’
Congress didn’t have time to act be-
fore daylight saving time went into ef-
fect this weekend, but Riccelli is hopeful
lawmakers will get it done before Nov.
7, when most of the country is set to
revert to standard time. He said he has
spoken with aides to Sen. Maria Can-
twell, the Washington Democrat who
chairs the U.S. Senate committee with
jurisdiction over the Department of
Transportation, about holding a hear-
ing to build momentum for the cause.
Riccelli conceded adopting year-
round daylight saving time is no
one’s top priority in the middle of a
pandemic, but he said the issue gives
lawmakers an opportunity to escape
partisan gridlock and show voters
Congress can get something done.
“In the midst of COVID — from
housing to health care, economic re-
covery, etc. — it certainly isn’t that
top-tier issue, but it’s an issue whose
time has come,” Riccelli said.
“It’s fascinating how much it an-
noys people and how much consensus
there is. People want to see Congress
act right now. COVID has been a dark
time, and Congress can be looked
at as a broken clock, and this is one
thing I think they can get right.”
If Congress fails to act, Riccelli
hopes Transportation Secretary Pete
Buttigieg will act to move the entire
Pacific time zone to permanent day-
light saving time, something he said
he has been told is within the trans-
portation chief’s authority.
“The secretary of transportation,
with the stroke of a pen, could change
our whole time zone,” he said. “I think
Mayor Pete is a common-sense per-
son, and if we have to, we could make
the appeal directly to the secretary of
transportation.”
A Department of Transportation
spokeswoman said in an email such a
change would require an act of Con-
gress and is outside the secretary’s au-
thority.
Buttigieg appeared Thursday on
Jimmy Kimmel Live, and the late-
night host was flabbergasted to learn
Buttigieg might have a say on the mat-
ter.
“We gotta get rid of this daylight
saving time!” Kimmel pleaded. “My
son, he woke up at 6 o’clock this
morning. We must do away with this
curse.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Buttigieg re-
plied with a laugh.
Riccelli and other advocates of
ditching the switch hope Congress
will take the issue more seriously.
“With the overwhelming bipartisan
support,” Riccelli said, “I don’t see why
Congress wouldn’t want to take this
opportunity to show that on some-
thing simple, something common
sense, we can get something done and
hopefully never ‘fall back’ again.”
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