Have We Changed the Clocks for the Last Time?

The Senate voted quickly to make daylight savings time permanent, and end the twice-yearly disruption of sleep schedules.

Will the House finally vote to do away with the very bad idea of changing our clocks every six months?

Some members of the House of Representatives are speaking about the Senate's recent vote in favor of making daylight saving time permanent, a move that might be popular with some Americans, but isn't popular with everyone.

It's not clear when, if at all, the House will vote on the legislation as members look to resolve other, more pressing issues.

As The Daily Wire reported, "The U.S. Senate voted unanimously on Tuesday to make Daylight Saving Time permanent in what many say will make short winter days better with an extra added hour of sunshine in the afternoon."

Members from both parties reportedly immediately stated their support for the move, although they seemed to be somewhat surprised by the quick passage through the upper chamber.

"I think it just caught us all by surprise that the Senate actually produced something and sent it to us. Usually -- usually bills go the other way," Representative Pete Aguilar (D-CA), told reporters early Wednesday, per The Hill.

On Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told The Hill she is in favor of getting rid of the time shift, "[b]ut she wouldn't provide further details about when the House could take up the matter, particularly with leaders working with the administration to respond to Russia's invasion of Ukraine," the outlet noted.

"We didn't realize they were acting so quickly and dispositively of it," Pelosi said. "I, myself, support making daylight saving time permanent. I think it's not going to be much of an issue for us. But we have to socialize it in our caucus, and our Congress, not just the caucus."

Some "experts" -- what would we do without them? -- say that ending the changing of the clocks is a positive move, but it's Standard Time that should be made permanent, not Savings Time.

"We do applaud stopping the switching during the course of the year and settling on a permanent time," said Jocelyn Cheng, a member of the AASM's public safety committee. But, she added, "standard time, for so many scientific and circadian rationales and public health safety reasons, should really be what the permanent time is set to."

The AASM made this stance clear in 2020 when it released a position statement recommending that the country institute year-round standard time. Its reasoning, in part, is that standard time is more closely associated with humans' intrinsic circadian rhythm, and that disrupting that rhythm, as happens with daylight saving time, has been associated with increased risks of obesity, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease and depression.

Look, I'm fine with either. I have a stupid clock-radio CD player and every six months I have to google the instruction manual to figure out how to change the time again. It's one of those ones where you have to use the fast forward button and the mode button at the same time while also pushing the AM/FM selector three times. That kind of a deal.

Not to mention the insomnia I'm having since we switched.

posted by Ace at 03:00 PM

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