Sunshine Protection Act needs approval from the House, and the signature of Joe Biden, to become law https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...ate-passes-act-daylight-saving-time-permanent The Senate unanimously approved a measure Tuesday that would make daylight saving time permanent across the United States next year. The bipartisan bill, named the Sunshine Protection Act, would ensure Americans would no longer have to change their clocks twice a year. But the bill still needs approval from the House, and the signature of Joe Biden, to become law. “No more switching clocks, more daylight hours to spend outside after school and after work, and more smiles – that is what we get with permanent daylight saving time,” said Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, the original cosponsor of the legislation, in a statement. Markey was joined on the chamber floor by senators from both parties as they made the case for how making daylight saving time permanent would have positive effects on public health and the economy and even cut energy consumption. “Changing the clock twice a year is outdated and unnecessary,” said Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Americans want more sunshine and less depression – people in this country, all the way from Seattle to Miami, want the Sunshine Protection Act,” added Senator Patty Murray of Washington. Nearly a dozen states across the US have already standardized daylight saving time. Daylight saving time is defined as a period between spring and fall when clocks in most parts of the country are set one hour ahead of standard time. Americans last changed their clocks on Sunday. Standard time lasts for roughly four months in most of the country. Members of Congress have long been interested in the potential benefits and costs of daylight saving time since it was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942. The proposal will now go to the House, where the energy and commerce committee had a hearing to discuss possible legislation last week. Representative Frank Pallone, the chairman of the committee, agreed in his opening statement at the hearing that it is “time we stop changing our clocks”. But he said he was undecided about whether daylight saving time or standard time is the way to go. Markey said Tuesday: “Now, I call on my colleagues in the House of Representatives to lighten up and swiftly pass the Sunshine Protection Act.”
Those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it... The US Tried Permanent Daylight Saving Time in the ’70s. People Hated It https://www.washingtonian.com/2022/...light-saving-time-in-the-70s-people-hated-it/
Sleep experts say Senate has it wrong: Standard time, not daylight saving, should be permanent “We have all enjoyed those summer evenings with seemingly endless dusks,” said David Neubauer, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University. But daylight saving time “does not ‘save’ evening light at all, it simply steals it from the morning when it is necessary to maintain our healthy biological rhythms.” Although the AASM noted that chronic effects of permanent daylight saving time have not been well studied, it highlighted some research that found “the body clock does not adjust to DST even after several months,” which could result in a permanent discrepancy between the environmental clock and the body clock. “The circadian clock, it’s not just something that involves the cells of your brain,” Cheng said. “The circadian clock also regulates rhythms in other areas of the body — like cells of the heart, like cells of the liver — and by altering our natural circadian rhythm in this way, we’re throwing off that biological rhythm, and that’s a longer term effect.” While no time system will be perfect for everyone, making daylight saving time permanent would lead to a greater number of dark mornings than we have now, said Phyllis Zee, chief of sleep medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “With daylight saving time, we are perpetually out of synchronization with our internal clocks and we often achieve less nighttime sleep, both circumstances having negative health impacts,” Neubauer said. “Extra evening light suppresses the melatonin that should be preparing us for falling asleep. The later dawn during daylight saving time deprives our biological clocks of the critical light signal.” Experts say circadian misalignment has been associated with adverse effects on cognition and mood as well as cardiovascular and metabolic function. “It’s really not a good thing to have your internal body clocks out of sync,” Zee said. “Imagine being in jet lag a lot of the time; it can’t be good for you.” The current enthusiasm for permanent daylight saving time is “grossly misguided,” said Neubauer, who predicted a return to “the extremely unpopular 1970s dark winter mornings with commuters going to work and children going to school long before sunrise, inevitably leading to injuries and fatalities.”
Oh fer CRYING OUT LOUD! Boo fucking hoo, yer going to work in the dark. Circadian rhythms and shit. Fuck off. These are the same sceintists who were whining about the coming ice age from global cooling in the 1970s. Assholes. Stop the grandstanding about body cycles. You don't know shit. I'd rather the sun set at around dinner time in New England, than at 4 fucking PM. How fucked up is it that it's pitch black at 5PM in the Northeast in winter? There was a bill recently proposed in MA to put us into the Atlantic Time Zone, which is an hour +1 ET, just to get away from this Standard time BULLSHIT. The debate will go on about it, and it will never become law, but it truly is time for it to go. I have ZERO faith in Biden signing this bill if it gets to his desk, because he is old and remembers how it was sold to the People as "energy savings". And Biden HATES crude oil. He's an asshole, like every president before him. I am the most cynical shithead when it comes to this DST crap. Nobody understand how screwed up this stupid cycle is.
House leaders want to take up daylight saving time bill — later https://thehill.com/homenews/house/...nt-to-take-up-daylight-saving-time-bill-later