In March, the Senate passed legislation (S-623) that would make daylight saving time permanent, starting in 2023, putting a stop to the bi-annual changing of the clocks.
Proposed by Senator Marco Rubio (R), the proposal repeals 15 USC 260a which establishes Daylight Savings Time. The measure still must be passed by the House of Representatives and then go on to Biden for signature to become law. Both Pelosi and Biden have not weighed in on whether or not they will support the measure.
If signed into law this session, the United States would have one last “Fall Back” in November, one more “Spring Forward” in March and then we would stay that way … forever.
A Brief History of Time Change.
For most of the span of world history there was no universally accepted constant of a World Time. As the world became more industrialized and mobile the need for a universally accepted constant became necessary.
Until 1884, each train station would set their own time, with over 144 local times in North America alone. Causing constant confusion with scheduling.
Finally, in October of 1884 nations met for the International Meridian Conference in Washington DC. They settled on a proposal that stated the prime meridian for longitude and timekeeping should be one that passes through the center of the transit instrument at the Greenwich Observatory in the United Kingdom (UK). The conference established the Greenwich Meridian as the prime meridian and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as the world’s time standard.
From this came the 24-hour time-zone system in which all zones referred back to GMT on the prime meridian as the starting point.
It wasn’t until 1918 that the federal organization in charge of railroad regulation – the Interstate Commerce Commission – was given the power to address time zones in the United States. That year, five time zones were officially adopted just as the United States entered World War I.
The Interstate Commerce Commission established Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, and Alaskan time zones which are still in use today. Additional time zones were added later in order to accommodate Hawaii.
In 1966, the responsibility for coordination of time was handed over to the Department of Transportation.
Daylight Savings Time
It is a common misconception that Daylight Savings Time, (the adjustment of time to accommodate the seasons) was proposed by Benjamin Franklin. This is due to a satirical article he wrote in the Journal of Paris in 1784 titled, “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light”. Back then, candlelight was the primary means of lighting ones home at night and Franklin calculated that it would save Paris over 96 million Tournois, (precursor to the French Franc) an equivalent amount to about $200 million dollars today.
While the publication had a serious side, it’s conception was not so much. Franklin stated that the idea came to him when he accidentally left the window shutters open and the noise from the street & sun prematurely woke him from his slumber.
Franklin wrote, “Your readers, who with me have never seen any sign of sunshine before noon, and seldom regard the astronomical part of the almanac, will be as much astonished as I was, when they hear of his rising so early; and especially when I assure them, that he gives light as soon as he rises. I am convinced of this. I am certain of my fact. One cannot be more certain of any fact. I saw it with my own eyes.”
In actuality it was Germany that was the first to adopt Daylight Saving Time (DST) in 1916, followed by Great Brittan.
America followed in 1918, but despite the attempts to sell it to the American People it was a giant flop. Americans hated it… just as many do today. Congress repealed the measure the very next year. President Woodrow Wilson tried to block the legislation with a Veto but Congress was able to override him. So, Daylight Saving Time was no more … until it wasn’t.
During WWII, President Franklin Roosevelt instituted what he called the, “War Time” policy … without Congresses consent, as he often did. Bringing back the concept of DST. It took congress another 21 years to finally pass the “Uniform Time Act” in 1966. That law was later amended in 1994 and has given us the DST that we use today. Only time will tell if the House of Representatives decides to repeal this heinous albatross of physics a second time.