Just Pick a Time Already!

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In a rare showing of long-overdue bipartisanship to solve an issue that has become a non-issue, the House of Representatives just passed the Sunshine Protection Act to make Daylight Saving Time (DST) permanent. This latest legal battle has been raging for the last few years. It started during the Biden Administration, incidentally enough, but it never made it to his desk. Who knows if he would have signed it, since he wasn’t signing much of anything, right?

With Trump back in office, he has lobbied for an end to the time changes. Trump’s signature on this wonderfully bipartisan piece of legislation would be another win and a great addition to his welcome legacy.

I am all for getting a uniform time system in place. No matter what the reasons were in the past, the country should finally settle on a uniform time system, one that won’t require the changes twice a year—and all the health problems that come with it. To summarize, DST causes disruptions to Americans’ circadian rhythm, which can unleash all sorts of negative consequences. Every time the time changes, there’s a sudden burst of heart attacks, strokes, and other problems. Let’s end this.

Besides, the change is a government-imposed holdover from previous demands, most of which were temporary when they started. Congress needs to get this micromanaging out of our lives for good and focus on other substantive issues, ensuring a brighter future for our country, no matter how much sunlight is shining in the sky.

Of course, all of this clock-switching and wrangling over daylight saving brings up the question: Why does the United States have this strange chronological two-step every year in the first place?

It’s all about war, and it didn’t start with us, incidentally enough!

To be accurate, sections of Canada began experimenting with the daylight time changes for farming and other purposes long before any war broke out. Those efforts remained very local, though. During World War I, Germany was the first country to implement DST. Starting in 1916, the Central Powers wanted to prolong daylight to save fuel for the war effort by reducing the need for artificial lighting. The U.S. followed suit in 1918 with Congress’s Standard Time Act for the same reason… but the time change was repealed after World War I. No one died when Standard Time was restored. It wasn’t the end of America. Everyone went about their business, including big business, agricultural interests, and everyone else.

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Daylight Saving Time resurfaced when World War II broke out, and our country needed as much light as possible for the same resource reasons as in World War I. We won that war, and the federal DST regime was repealed; the power reverted to states (and even local regions) to do what they wanted, going with Standard Time or DST as they pleased.

Time waits for no man, however, and uniform standards are essential for understanding and planning when different sections of the country are in different time zones. Planes (they came soon enough), trains, and automobiles faced all kinds of problems navigating the different states with their unique times and time zone preferences. Radio broadcasts found the lack of uniformity disconcerting, as well.

To solve this problem, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966 (one of the few good things accomplished by Lyndon Baines Johnson), which standardized DST for the whole country, and also legislated when daylight saving time would begin and end throughout the year. Finally, Congress solved the standardization problem. However, the health issues and the general disruption of changing clocks twice a year would continue for everyone (Except Arizona and Hawaii, but that’s another story).

Americans have endured 50 years of this springing forward and falling back. I’m sick of it. It’s like some old relic, all coming from wartime, an anachronism proving yet again that government intervention knows no bounds. Times have changed, agricultural methods have improved, and everyone has technology to light their way, whether driving to work or getting to school. The United States has never been more energy dominant and independent, so concerns about fuel costs and availability don’t matter anymore.

To go with Standard Time or Daylight Saving Time is now a matter of preference. Lots of interest groups are going to be happy or unhappy either way, so let’s put aside their discomforts.

The frustration for me ultimately comes down to the simplicity. For centuries, Americans—colonists then citizens—didn’t complain about the rhythm and availability of sunlight from season to season. Americans managed; they made it work; they lived their lives in line with nature. For what it’s worth, I don’t recall General George Washington losing any battle with the British or President Abraham Lincoln trying to harness the sun’s power for war, playing with Father Time or Mother Nature to ensure military victories.

If they could manage, so can we.

Now that different sections of the country have gotten used to a certain rhythm, though, they simply don’t want any disruption. I must admit that the opponents of making Daylight Saving Time permanent have a point: do we want children to go to school in the morning when it’s still dark outside? Then again, those same kids went to school when it was dark, and there was no daylight saving time for them for decades before. Are we saying that the kids can’t handle the change today? We have better technology, more sophisticated methods for keeping kids safe. The United States is not facing an energy crisis, even while contending with our worst global enemy, Iran. Trump made sure of that.

The important point now is to stop the clock changes altogether. It’s to get uniformity without the arbitrary time changes. Widespread support for the current bill should shut down further discussion. U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), however, wants to block the bill, sharing concerns about the darker mornings in winter.

We should note that this year’s legislative attempt would not be the first time that the country scrapped the time changes in our recent past. Because of yet another energy crisis (the OPEC oil embargo), President Richard Nixon signed a law, making DST permanent for the country. However, there was widespread outrage (as expected) over the change. From dark commutes for the adults, to long dark waits for kids going to school, to farmers' complaints about shifting their agricultural operations, Nixon and Congress realized they had a problem on their hands—plus they didn’t save that much energy to begin with!

The DST changes went back into effect, and then Congress added a few more weeks in 2007 with the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

The American people have adapted to change before, and we really should end this time-switching. It’s time to move into the 21st century. Cotton is wrong, and he should shut up about the whole thing. Congress should pass the Sunshine Protection Act. Hey, I wouldn’t mind if the powers that be changed the bill to Permanent Standard Time, but the point is to make the change. Sure, there will be some grumbling, but probably not as much, and everyone will get used to it.

Just pick a time already!

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