Will daylight saving time bill set the sun on clock changes in California?
Sam Metz
On Sunday morning at 2 a.m., California clocks sprang forward one hour, making the sunrise and sunset times come later each day. Assemblymember Kansen Chu, D-San Jose, hopes it’ll be California’s last clock change.
Since 2017, he's pushed to keep California permanently on daylight saving time, which he believes will benefit public health and safety.
Chu's aim received a boost in the 2018 midterm election, when a ballot initiative that proposed authorizing the state legislature to reform daylight savings time passed with 60 percent voter approval.
After the November passage of Proposition 7, California legislators can now vote to keep California permanently on daylight saving time. The policy change will require two-thirds approval in the legislature, then passage in Congress and a presidential signature.
“I’m keeping my fingers crossed to hopefully be able not to switch back our clocks anymore,” Chu said.
A month after the election, Chu introduced Assembly Bill 7, which proposes keeping California on daylight saving time year-round.
Federal law allows states like Arizona and Hawaii to opt out of daylight saving time and stay on standard time year-round. Congress has considered bills to allow states to remain on daylight saving time permanently, but they’ve stalled before legislators in either the House or Senate have had the chance to vote on them.
Chu said he's confident AB 7 will pass through the state legislature with bipartisan support and two-thirds approval.
“It’s going through the process and will hopefully have its first hearing hopefully toward the end of the month,” Chu said.
If the bill passes, California will be in the same boat as Florida, whose legislature passed a similar bill to implement daylight saving time year-round. It has been waiting for permission from the federal government. After the Florida lawmakers decided to adopt year-round daylight saving time, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, introduced the Sunshine Protection Act of 2018 to grant the state approval to stay on daylight saving time year-round.
U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Santa Clara, co-sponsored a companion bill in the House of Representatives and plans to support legislation to allow California to adopt year-round daylight saving time.
“I support Assemblymember Chu’s efforts in the California legislature,” he said in an emailed statement. “Should that legislation pass, and I’m confident with his leadership it will move forward, I will work to make this a priority in the U.S. Congress.”
The United States first instituted twice-yearly clock changes during World War I hoping to conserve fuel. California adopted the "fall back, spring forward" practice in 1949 when the state passed the Daylight Saving Time Act. But now, proponents of permanent daylight saving time say, after 70 years, it's time to reconsider the policy.
In a fact sheet about his policy proposal, Chu cited research showing an extra hour of daylight in the evening hours would benefit businesses. And each year when clocks spring forward, he said the research shows medical emergencies, traffic accidents and household electricity consumption all increase.
Chu also said adopting year-round daylight savings time could benefit students, with later sunsets providing them more opportunities to engage in outdoor activities after school.
Trina Gonzales-Alesi, president of the Desert Sands Teachers Association, said adopting daylight saving time year-round would have tangible effects on students.
“I think it has an impact on students. Both the jumping forward and falling back impact them. It’s like the equivalent of having jetlag. It takes them a week to adjust to the new time schedule,” she said.
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Sam Metz covers politics. Reach him at samuel.metz@desertsun.com or on Twitter @metzsam.