With bipartisan support in Congress for permanent daylight saving time, could this weekend’s time change be the last? | The Spokesman-Review
WASHINGTON Congress may be more divided than ever, but there s one thing on which Republicans and Democrats can agree: No one likes losing an hour of sleep when the nation springs forward 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 saving 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 catalyst for the veritable tidal wave of anti-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 a year later adopted a bill that would allow North Idaho to follow Washington s lead.
There s just one problem: While states can opt out of daylight saving time as Hawaii and most of Arizona have done federal law requires an act of Congress to allow states to adopt daylight saving time on a permanent basis.