Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has introduced a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent, but it’s got no chance of seeing daylight.
Everybody hates DST — but not enough to be bothered to do anything about it.
Congress has to pass a law — and then someone has to wake up President Biden to have him sign it — if springing forward and falling back are to become consigned to the dustbin of calendar history.
Good luck.
Congress is consumed with passing the progressive agenda right now, which means that if you aren’t trying to redistribute money from those who earn it to those who like getting free stuff, and if you aren’t trying to shift power from individuals, businesses, and states to the Federal Government, your law won’t go through.
Here are five ways to get permanent DST signed into law, based on the legislative priorities of the new administration.
Connect Daylight Savings to climate change
Any bill that has the slightest connection to climate change is going to pass the Democratic House and the Senate in a New York minute. If legislators can make a convincing case that eliminating DST has a positive effect on climate change, it’s a done deal. Here’s the case: You use less electricity to heat and light homes and businesses if you don’t reset the clocks twice a year.
I don’t know if that’s actually true — but since the science on climate change is so murky, what’s one more alternative fact?
Connect Daylight Savings to infrastructure
Eliminating DST means that there will be considerably less use of roads, highways, and bridges, because people will get where they’re going on time instead of getting there an hour early or an hour late and having to double back to wherever they were and return another time.
The effect of DST on infrastructure is, admittedly, tenuous… but since any infrastructure bill is just a 900-page collection of Christmas tree ornaments for every legislator in every district, who’s going to mind one more little paragraph?
China containment
One of President Biden’s goals is to limit China’s influence in the world. If we eliminate DST but we don’t tell the Chinese we did it, they will fall behind technologically, since our clocks will be correct all year long and theirs will be, um, off by an hour. Okay, this is admittedly a stretch, but it’s better than nothing.
DST aids election reform
Democrats want election reform, and what better way to make the process fairer than to give voters another hour of sunshine each first Tuesday in November if they want to vote in person? Nobody wants to drive to the polls when it’s dark out.
DST means more voters, and if the voters don’t have to register, they can vote in multiple polling stations and still be home by dark.
Reduce healthcare costs
Unlike many of my previous arguments, this one actually makes sense. Shifting the clock means drowsy drivers, train engineers, pilots, and operators of heavy machinery, which means more accidents, which means more hospitalizations and higher healthcare costs.
This also reduces frustration for travelers trying to catch buses, trains, and flights, because DST plays havoc with schedules.
If I had more time, I could probably tie DST to other Biden administration priorities, such as immigration, the economy, COVID relief, and restoring America’s global standing. But there’s only so much stretching of the truth that even legislators can do.
Unless we can tie DST to some legislative priority, six months from now we’ll be falling back again… even though there’s nothing as useless as DST.
New York Times bestselling author Michael Levin has written or co-written more than 750 books, including 19 national best sellers, including two New York Times best sellers. He has also taught writing at UCLA and NYU. He runs a book ghostwriting firm, www.MichaelLevinWrites.com.