STATEWIDE — It happens twice a year – time changes and you just have to go along with it. But legislation passed in the Senate would put an end to the time known as Daylight Saving Time.
It’s called the Sunshine Protection Act, and it passed unanimously with a voice vote Tuesday. If signed by President Biden, it would make Daylight Saving Time permanent. But what does that mean for you and the rest of the country?
To put it simply, it would get just about everyone on the same page.
“There’s a lot of challenge when you have different states on different times,” says Dr. Laura Wilson, political science professor at the University of Indianapolis, “the benefit of having this go through Congress and on a national level means you wouldn’t have those inconsistencies that you would have on a state by state case.”
Dr. Wilson says Daylight Saving Time was a product of it’s time – decades ago when the United States’ economy had stronger ties to agriculture. Things are much different now.
Dr. Wilson explains, “we’ve observed this for reasons that historically made sense, but they’re not the same needs that we have right now.” This change would theoretically make a few things easier, such as travel and shipping logistics. However, this wouldn’t completely revolutionize time as we know it.
“So on one hand, it would absolutely simplify those logistics. On the other hand, we still have different time zones, and this wouldn’t change those,” explains Dr. Wilson.
Dr. Wilson says one of the biggest takeaways from the Sunshine Protection Act is that everyone in Congress was on the same page, which is she says is pretty exciting from a legislative perspective.
