It will soon be time to once again spring forward an hour, as most states shift to Daylight Savings Time on March 13.
New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, wonders whether the twice-a-year time change is really needed any more.
That what the subcommittee on consumer protection will address at a hearing Wednesday. Residents of all but two states, Arizona and Hawaii, move their clocks ahead every spring and back every fall. Those two states remain on permanent standard time.
“There are a lot of people who think that we should either have one time, that we should not switch back and forth,” said Pallone, D-6th Dist. “The purpose of the hearing is to see whether the idea of switching back and forth is obsolete.”
A bipartisan bill in both houses of Congress, introduced by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., would make Daylight Savings Time permanent year-round. That would require Congress to amend the Uniform Time Act of 1966.
One of the bill’s co-sponsors is U.S. Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa.
“Rather than ‘fall back’ into the antiquated & silly practice of changing the clocks twice a year, we should make Daylight Savings Time permanent and stop changing our clocks for good,” Toomey tweeted.
There’s an ongoing debate about the benefits of moving to permanent Daylight Savings Time.
The U.S. Department of Transportation, which oversees the time laws, says Daylight Savings Time saves energy, saves lives, prevents traffic injuries and reduces crime.
But a Congressional Research Service study said that earlier studies by the Transportation and Energy departments found that any impacts were minimal.
And while businesses, such as the National Retail Federation, support the extra daylight shopping hours, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine would go the other way by eliminating daylight time altogether in favor of standard time year-round.
“Permanent, year-round standard time is the best choice to most closely match our circadian sleep-wake cycle,” said Dr. M. Adeel Rishi, a pulmonology, sleep medicine and critical care specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. “Daylight saving time results in more darkness in the morning and more light in the evening, disrupting the body’s natural rhythm.”
There also are discussions about splitting the difference, moving the clocks ahead 30 minutes and keeping them there.
That hasn’t diminished the enthusiasm in a growing number of states voting for year-round Daylight Savings Time, assuming the federal government changes the law.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, at least 18 states, including Delaware, have taken such action.
Delaware’s law is contingent on its neighbors, including New Jersey, following suit. State Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Mercer, has introduced legislation to put the Garden State on year-round daylight savings time.
This congressional concern about time changes also was an outgrowth of the coronavirus pandemic, when people stayed home rather than go to work or school, and weren’t keen about moving their clocks back and forth, Pallone said.
“During COVID, people were home, the economy changed, kids weren’t in school,” he said. “It has come up a lot more because of the health emergency.”
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Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him at @JDSalant.
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