Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has become a magnet for liberal outrage, but he just proposed a popular change that’s a winner with the American people — including Democratic Party leaders.
On Mar. 9, Rubio introduced the Sunshine Protection Act, a bill to end “falling back” by November 2023. Under the bill, Americans would no longer need to change clocks every six months. Daylight saving time would be permanent.
The bill passed the Senate on Tuesday. To become law, it needs House approval and a signature from President Joe Biden.
Rubio moved to pass the bill with unanimous consent, and no one objected.
In fact, senators from both parties 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.
“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,” Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, a cosponsor of the legislation, said in a statement.
“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,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-W.A., added.
“It is a sad time. People are unhappy. It does darken our lives in a very literal sense,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, R-R.I., said, according to The New York Times. “We have sunset in Rhode Island at 4:15 — 4:15!”
Rep. 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.
Only 3 in 10 Americans prefer to change the clocks every six months, according to a 2019 poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
However, Americans disagree on whether to fall back permanently or spring forward permanently.
According to the poll, 4 in 10 Americans would like to see their clocks stay on standard time: winter time. Parents worry about sending their kids into the predawn darkness to wait for school buses.
Roughly 3 in 10 Americans prefer to stay on daylight saving time: summer time. Commuters worry about traveling home from work in the dark, since sleepy driving can be dangerous. Public safety advocates believe that crime would drop during lighter evenings.
Some amount of psychiatric research has linked “falling back” to a 10-week spike in mental illness. Psychiatrists have measured an 11 percent increase in hospitalizations for depression, according to 185,00 data points from Denmark between 1995 to 2012. They have found no similar effect from “springing forward.” Granted, these data may not be representative.
On the other hand, sleep scientists argue that standard time allows Americans to enjoy adequate sleep, and they point out that standard time aligns with the sun’s natural cycles.
They suspect that committing to daylight time would result in chronic sleep deprivation, worsening the epidemics of diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. However, they haven’t tested this theory in a lab yet.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article.