Lawmakers urge Congress to make daylight saving time permanent
Mary Jane Sanese
On Sunday morning it's time to spring ahead and set the clocks an hour forward, but some Ohio lawmakers want to put an end to that.
With this comes more sunlight, longer days, and the beginning of the spring season. It also comes with losing an hour of sleep and adjusting.
Rep J. Kyle Koehler, R-Springfield, sponsored a resolution urging Congress to pass The Sunshine Protection Act of 2021. The law would eliminate the need for changing the clocks twice a year, making daylight saving time permanent.
"If there is one thing that all of my constituents would agree on, and I live in a 50/50 district, is the fact we need to stop changing the clocks," he said.
Ohio HCR 13 is currently in the Senate's General Government Budget committee. Resolutions are largely symbolic.
America has, at times, followed continuous daylight saving time. The resolution said daylight saving time dates back to World War I. Congress adopted the time change to fuel the war industry. There was also continuous daylight saving time during World War II and the 1973 oil crisis.
Koehler's main reason for sponsoring this resolution is the students who will have to go to school Monday morning and take state mandated tests a day after changing the clocks. He believes sending kids to take high stakes performance tests and changing the clocks the day before is unfair.
Proponents at a hearing on the resolution last year said the time changes cause more car accidents, strokes and heart attacks, which means death and hospital visit rates increase.
The setbacks of time changes
A 2009 study showed workdays following the time change saw more frequent and more severe injuries due to the change in sleep schedules.
A 2008 study by the New England Journal of Medicine said there was a increase in heart attacks the first three weekdays following the change back to daylight saving time.
Widespread support
An AP-NORC poll from 2019 found 71% of Americans want to end the practice of changing clocks. Twenty-eight percent want to keep the time changes, 31% prefer year-round daylight saving time and 40% prefer standard time permanently.
Koehler said Ohio lawmakers could make the change to standard time permanently, but only the federal government can make the change to daylight saving.
According to the Department of Transportation's website, The Uniform Time Act Provisions of 1966 only the Secretary of Transportation or Congress can alter a time-zone boundary.
Arizona and Hawaii are the only states that do not follow daylight saving time. Both opted out of the provisions.
Mary Jane Sanese is a fellow in Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism Statehouse News Bureau program.