Rubio Pushes for Year-Round Daylight Saving Time

‘We’re about to once again do this annual craziness of changing the clock, falling back, springing forward. We need to stop doing it.’

Cole Carnick • November 4, 2021 1:00 pm

Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) is pushing for year-round Daylight Saving Time, saying twice-a-year clock changes are “stupid.”

“We’re about to once again do this annual craziness of changing the clock, falling back, springing forward. We need to stop doing it. There is no justification for it. Let’s go to permanent Daylight Saving Time,” Rubio said in a video message Wednesday. “The overwhelming majority of members of Congress approve and support it. Let’s get it done. Let’s get it passed so that we never have to do this stupid change again.”

Rubio in March introduced the bipartisan Sunshine Protection Act, which would make Daylight Saving Time permanent, and the House and Senate versions of the bill are in committee. The bill is based on a 2018 Florida law that mandates year-round Daylight Saving Time. Eighteen other states have enacted similar measures. The state laws, however, cannot go into effect without an act of Congress—the 1966 Uniform Time Act prohibits states from observing permanent Daylight Saving Time, which begins in most states in March and ends in November.

Daylight Saving Time, which increases the daylight hours in the evening, saves energy, decreases traffic accidents, and reduces crime, according to the Department of Transportation.

Hawaii and Arizona observe year-round Standard Time, which in most states begins in November and ends in March. Daylight Saving Time will end Sunday at 2 a.m., when clocks will “fall back” to 1 a.m.