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Fall Back — Why Not Keep Daylight Saving Time Year Round In Florida?
November 7, 2021
Florida enacted year-round Daylight Saving Time years ago, but that is not yet the case.
In March 2021, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio led Senate colleagues in reintroducing the Sunshine Protection Act, legislation that would make Daylight Saving Time (DST) permanent across the country
This week, Florida “fell back” and turned our clocks back an hour to Standard Time, something Rubio called “this annual craziness of changing the clock, falling back, springing forward”.
“We need to stop doing it. There is no justification for it. Let’s go to permanent Daylight Saving Time,” he said. “The overwhelming majority of members of Congress approve and support it. Let’s get it done. Let’s get it passed, so that we never have to do this stupid change again.”
Rubio first introduced the legislation in the 115th Congress, and reflects the Florida legislature’s 2018 enactment of year-round DST; however, for Florida’s change to apply, a change in the federal statute is required. Nineteen other states — Arkansas, Alabama, California, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming — have passed similar laws, resolutions or voter initiatives, and dozens more are looking.
The legislation, if enacted, would apply to those states who currently participate in DST, which states observe for eight months out of the year. Standard Time, from November to March, is only observed for four months out of the year. The bill would simply negate the need for Americans to change their clocks twice a year. Many studies have shown that making DST permanent could benefit the economy and the country.
Standard Time continues until Sunday, March 13, 2022.
Comments
15 Responses to “Fall Back — Why Not Keep Daylight Saving Time Year Round In Florida?”
I “vote” for year-round standard time. Our “atomic” clocks have only two options: DST “On” and DST “Off”. There’s no “year-round DST” option. Consequently they’ll be wrong all the time or wrong when the rest of the nation goes off DST. Businesses, school districts and whoever wants more daylight hours AM or PM can simply change their posted hours for being open.
Daylight Savings Time is totally unnecessary. If people are so worried about their kids waiting by the bus in the dark, they should enroll their kids in one of the many schools that start later in the morning. Most people don’t have young children. The ones that do should figure out their own solutions not expect millions of people to accommodate their schedule and change their whole routine and sleep schedule every six months.
I must be the oldest person that reads this paper. I say that because no one else has mentioned that Florida tried this back in the ’70’s. We kept “daylight savings” time for a couple of years. The problem is that too many school children were standing at school bus stops in the early morning dark. Parents were afraid the kids would be run over by drivers who couldn’t see them. I think there was even a vote taken and the voters decided the safety of the children was more important than some old fogies who couldn’t remember to change their clocks twice a year.
There is no reason to change anything at all. If we mess with Florida as a whole what happens to those of us in the panhandle, we aren’t in line with Eastern time, so where would it leave us? This has been something we’ve done for years, it might seem useless to some people, but it keeps us lined up with the sun to get the most out of our days. If we stop jumping it will only get worse. A few days of getting your internal clock realigned is worth it to me. Messing with something that literally has no ACTUAL detriment to people is a waste of time. There’s so many better things we can focus on.
For what it is worth, I rather stay on winter time all year…..
proof that politicians (in this case Republican as we area red state)don’t give a damned about your vote they do as they want!! BUT DO NOT STOP VOTING – WE WILL OVERCOME THIS PERIOD AND STAND STRONG AS AMERICANS
This comes up every year “why we changing time” “I hate time change” etc etc etc… It has been going on for as long as I remember… Its really not that big of a deal. There are a lot of other things to get bent out of shape over. I honestly like it, I like it getting dark by 5pm… You want it day light until 9-10pm move to California… or closer to the equator… simple as that.
Are we the only state that had two different time zones? That’s just wrong!
You can’t fix something if it aint broke!
Florida voters voted for its own state without regard for other states. The Florida senators pulled a political stunt by introducing a nationwide bill. They knew it wouldn’t pass but thought it would settle the voters wishes. The Senators need to reintroduce this bill with only consideration for Florida.
Please stop changing the clocks. He gets dark to soon without falling back an hour and making it dark 1 hour sooner.
Keep the time change just like it is. It’s been happening for years on end and it does not need to be messed with. There is no advantage to changing it to one thing across the board.
I see no point or advantage to doing this.
I don’t understand why it is taking soo long to change it to one time year round but you have to look at the do nothing good congress and senate we have no buddy to pay them for the vote.
I could care less which one was picked, as long as we stopped doing it, everybody.