MOLINE, Ill. — We are less than a week away from the ceremonious changing of the clocks, something we do twice a year, for now. You may recall back in 2021, a bill was introduced into the Senate appropriately named The Sunshine Protection Act. While it passed through the Senate with very little fanfare, it stalled in the House and eventually expired. Introduction of the bill lifted the hopes of many who wished to remain on daylight saving time permanently for the entire year.
Fast-forward to this year and the bill has now been reintroduced in the Senate, bringing new life to the potential end of life to the infamous "fall back".
The biggest change we can expect here in the Quad Cities? A very late sunrise in the months of December and January that would be as late as 8:30 am! That tends to raise some concern, especially from parents of young children that wait at the bus stop.
Tired of early sunsets around 4:30 pm in the dead of winter? You'd gain a little more daylight there, pushing sunset back to around 5:30 pm. Reminder: we are not changing the amount of daylight, rather, we are changing when we observe what daylight is given to us.
Supporters of the bill say there are many added benefits to ditching the autumn fall-back, including a reduction in car crashes and accidents by better aligning the hours of daylight with the time when most workers are traveling. The bill also claims that ditching daylight saving time disrupts the synergy between farming schedules and their supply chain partners. Plus, nearly 65% of the year is already on daylight saving time, adding another strong argument for keeping it year-round.
Right now, only two states don't observe daylight saving time, Hawaii and Arizona. Congress has the final say in which states do and don't observe the time change. Several other states already have legislation on the books approving a permanent switch to daylight saving time but are still waiting for approval from Congress.
Time will literally tell what will happen with this latest version of The Sunshine Protection Act. It seems many are on board with the change. Stay tuned!
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