Daylight savings time has a chance to become permanent in 2023.
Driving the news: Senators Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced the new bipartisan Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight savings time permanent in the United States, per The Hill.
- The bill passed unanimously in the Senate Tuesday.
Why it matters: If the bill passes the House and gets signed by President Joe Biden, then Americans wouldn’t have to set their clocks back in the fall and winter.
- “If enacted into law, it would also mean that early risers lose an hour of daylight in the mornings in November, December, January and February,” The Hill reports.
What they’re saying: “There’s strong science behind it that is now showing and making people aware of the harm that clock switching has, there’s an increase in heart attacks, car accidents and pedestrian accidents,” Rubio said on the Senate floor.
- “The benefits of daylight saving time has been accounted for in the research: Reduced crime as there is light later in the day, decrease in seasonal depression that many feel during standard time and the practical one,” he added.
The bigger picture: There has been a lot of research over the years that has linked changing the clocks twice a year to a variety of problems, including heart issues, depression, negative effects on sleep and car crashes, the Deseret News previously reported.
What they’re saying: “There has always been a debate in regards to daylight saving time,” Dr. Phyllis C. Zee, chief of sleep medicine in the Department of Neurology at Northwestern Medicine, said in a statement on Nm.org. “The science has evolved over the last decade to show the transition between standard time and daylight saving time is associated with adverse health consequences. The big question on the table right now is, should it be permanent standard time or permanent daylight saving time?”