Congress Is Messing with Our Clocks - Again

 

by Pa Rock

Curmudgeon

Just the fact that the US House of Representatives is in session on a given date is worthy of note - and a news story in itself, but yesterday the US House was not only in session, it also managed to pass a significant piece of legislation.  The US House, like many of our state legislatures, is known for grandiose and misleading language in naming pieces of legislation (to sound more important, or to confuse the public).  Yesterday's bill, which still has to pass the Senate and be signed by the President before it would become law, was titled "The Sunshine Protection Act," and honestly, who wouldn't want to protect sunshine?

The Sunshine Protection Act, which passed the House on a healthy bi-partisan vote of 308-117, would place the country on Daylight Savings Time permanently.  It means we would no longer have to change our clocks twice each year and could peacefully enjoy time that did not change in order to accommodate certain lifestyles or businesses.   Another stated goal was to bring about a national uniformity of time, but then the bill exempts the two states that have elected to have nothing to do with Daylight Savings Time:  Arizona and Hawaii - so we will still be a nation of two time schemes several months each year.

Polls show that there is strong support for the country to be on a permanent time schedule, but polls also show that Americans more or less evenly split on which time scheme should be the national norm:  Daylight Savings or Standard.  Perhaps that is at least part of the reason that passage of the measure does not seem to be guaranteed in the Senate.

I am a member of the "let's go to Standard time year-round camp."  I remember reading somewhere that last time the amount of Daylight Savings Time was lengthened, in 2007, the change was aided by  political pressure from charcoal lobbyists who wanted families to have more time at their outdoor grills.  My opposition to DST is also rooted in a commercial interest:  Daylight Savings Time killed America's drive-in movie industry, one of the joys of my youth.

But, regardless of my personal preferences, I would like to commend the US House of Representatives for showing up to work yesterday and actually passing something in a quasi-bipartisan way.  When you good ol' boys and gals are home next month campaigning to keep your cushy jobs, and deranged radicals pelt you with quetions about why the Epstein files are still being hidden, or the pricee of gas hasn't come down, or soybeans rotting in warehouses, you can at least point with pride to the fact that you helped save Sunshine!

Good work!  Give yourselves a week off to recuperate!