A push to give Americans an extra hour of afternoon daylight in the winter appears to be dead for now as the House of Representatives is busy with supposedly more pressing matters.
Lawmakers from both parties say there is no chance they will vote anytime soon to make daylight saving time year ‘round — and scrap the hated ritual of turning clocks back and forth — even though the measure passed the Senate unanimously.
“I can’t say it’s a priority,” Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that regulates such issues, told The Hill.
“It’s fallen by the wayside … with so many of the other issues that are out there,” said Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the No. 2 GOP leader.
The Senate bill would make daylight savings time permanent starting next year, meaning the entire country would not turn their clocks back an hour in November 2023.
That would effectively result in an extra hour of daylight in the afternoon, easing complaints about gloomy early darkness in winter, especially in parts of the country like New York that are on the eastern edges of their time zones.
But it would cause the sun to rise an hour later, irking farmers, parents and school employees who have to be up and about early in the morning.
The inspirationally named Sunshine Protection Act passed the Senate in April with little debate and few objections.
Most Americans despise turning their clocks an hour forward in the spring and an hour back in the fall, polls show.
But there is less widespread agreement about whether to stick to daylight saving time or standard time all year ‘round.
Tourism-dependent areas are particularly adamant about the benefits of having an extra hour of daylight in the afternoon instead of the morning to keep people out and spending later.
Parents say getting the kids up for school in the dark is annoying and downright dangerous in the frigid upper Midwest, although it’s not obvious why schools could not simply open an hour later during the darkest winter months.
“We continue to try to come up with a consensus but so far, it’s eluded us,” Pallone conceded.
