Florida passed “Sunshine Protection Act” in 2018, Why We Still Change Clock
In 2018. Florida’s Legislature passed the “Sunshine Protection Act,” which would keep Florida on daylight saving time, the would mean, the next time we move our clocks ahead by one hour, that be done permanently.
However, for it go into effect, the U.S. Congress has to approve it, because of the Uniform Time Act of 1966.
That approval, did not happen in 2018, or in the year's since. .
Earlier in 2021 - US Congressman Vern Buchanan — whose district represents Manatee County and parts of Sarasota and Hillsborough counties — introduced House Resolution 69, also called the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021. The bill, which was introduced January. 4, 2021, and in part the bill said, “this bill makes daylight savings time the new, permanent standard time. States with areas exempt from daylight savings time may choose the standard time for those areas.”
Florida’s two senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, advocated for the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 through S.623, a bill Rubio introduced with Scott as one of 14 co-sponsors, which included bipartisan support, in March.
However, neither bill has passed through Congress or the Senate, leaving Floridians like 48 other states with the need to push the clocks back this weekend. Hawaii and most of Arizona are on standard time year-round.
Benjamin Franklin, is often credited with the daylight saving time idea. Franklin wrote a 1784 essay about it as a way to conserve the need for lamp oil, while New Zealand entomologist George Hudson came up with the modern-day concept in 1895, so he had more daylight to look for bugs. But the idea did not gain traction among U.S. lawmakers until World War I and then in World War II as a wartime measure.
The Uniform Time Act in 1966 made the change in time an annual passage throughout the country. And while proponents want to stop changing the clocks twice a year, opponents — mainly parents and teachers — argue that a permanent daylight saving time means darker mornings and increased safety risks for children heading to school, whether it’s new teen drivers on the road or students walking to a bus stop or nearby school.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio has once again started discussions to make "Daylight Saving Time", year round. Check out his Press Release from March of 2021 . Read that info here:
Photo: Getty Images