Adjusting your clock twice a year could soon be a thing of the past.
On Tuesday, the Washington Senate State Government and Elections Committee held a hearing on bipartisan legislation to permanently shift Washington to Pacific Standard Time throughout the year. If passed, the bill would end the yearly cycle of adjusting clocks one hour behind in the fall and then moving them ahead in the spring.
According to a 2022 poll conducted by Monmouth University Poll, 61% of Americans want to end the biannual practice.
This is the second time legislators have sought to end daylight saving time. While lawmakers passed a similar bill in 2019, congressional approval is required to make a switch to permanent daylight savings time.
“That’s why I support this bill that will put our state on permanent standard time,” cosponsor Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, said in a statement. “I have heard from constituents that they overall prefer to stay on permanent daylight saving time, so this bill includes a trigger so that if Congress does act and allows states to choose permanent daylight saving time, our state will automatically switch once and for all.”
However, Congress has already given states the ability to remain permanently on standard time. Arizona and Hawaii are the only states that
do not observe daylight saving time.
Bill cosponsor Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, said he is partnering with legislators from California and Oregon on similar legislation, which would place the three states along the West Coast on Pacific Standard time year-round. The Oregon Legislature begins its 2024 session on Feb. 5, while the California Legislature began Jan. 3.
“Switching back and forth between daylight time and standard time confuses and annoys many people, and it causes health problems for some. That’s why Sen. (Kim) Thatcher and I are working together to see if our respective legislatures can keep our clocks on standard time year-round,” Padden said in a statement.
Legislators have also talked to lawmakers from Idaho and Nevada to encourage similar legislation. If passed, the bill would go into effect on Nov. 4 of this year, one day after daylight saving time ends.
According to Padden, the idea is supported by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the American Medical Association, the National Sleep Foundation, the Sleep Research Society and the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms.
“Research shows that the transition between standard time and daylight saving time and back again causes a range of negative health effects, including worse stress, an increased number of car and workplace accidents, and even greater rates of suicide. Those serious detrimental effects on Washingtonians’ health are why it’s so important that we do away with springing forward and falling back,” Dhingra said in a statement.
Federally, the idea has also seen bipartisan support in recent years. In 2021, Sen. Patty Murray wrote an op-ed with Republican Sen. Marco Rubio in support of the Sunshine Protection Act, which would extend daylight savings time permanently,
“Any parent who has worked so hard to get a newborn or toddler on a regular sleeping schedule understands the absolute chaos changing our clocks creates. And I don’t know a single person who wants the sun to set at four o’clock in the afternoon during the winter,” Murray said in a statement last year to mark the beginning of daylight savings time.
