The U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted unanimously in favor of the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make Daylight Saving Time permanent – meaning Americans would no longer have to change their clocks twice a year to account for the time change.
“It’s really straightforward: Cutting back on the sun during the fall and winter is a drain on the American people and does little to nothing to help them,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a cosponsor of the bipartisan legislation, wrote in a statement. “It’s time we retire this tired tradition.”
The bill, which must first clear the House of Representatives before it can be signed into law, would make the current time zone permanent, as Daylight Saving Time began Sunday, March 13, and lasts through Sunday, November 7.
States and regions that do not currently observe Daylight Saving Time – Hawaii and most of Arizona, the Navajo Nation, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands – will not be required to adopt any changes.
The bill also does not create new time zones, nor does it change the amount of hours of sunlight per day.
“In sum, if enacted, we would not ‘fall back’ in November and would enjoy a full year of DST, instead of only eight months,” Sen. Rubio clarified.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., another cosponsor, said the bill aims to “brighten the coldest months with an extra hour of afternoon sun.”
Daylight Saving Time was first adopted by the federal government in 1918 before being repealed seven months later. It went through a series of re-adoptions and changes, and the current Daylight Saving Time lasts months longer than when it was first implemented.
(AP)
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32 Responses
no more Avod Ubanim, working people wont be able to daven at home but will need to daven at work in winter as shachris cant start till 730 in december. where is Aguda?
Wow – Senate working really hard. So impressed, NOT! Wish they would do something more important like impeach the idiot in chief.
This will be a MAJOR CHURBAN for those that go the work.
In the middle of the winter sunrise could be as late as 8:19AM.
Do the math to see when one will be able to put on Talis and Tefilin (משיכיר)
For Yidden very very sad day There will be many yidden who wont be able to daven with a minyon or G-D forbid won’t daven at all because of this legislation. From December 1, through February 7 the Netz will be after 8:00am. in NYC. If you have to be at work at 9am any where out of Brooklyn where will you daven?
This is a big Gezayra on Klal Yisroel!
In the mid winter the Netz will be like 8:20AM. Thus Shacris wil be for most workers (before the Netz) which is only Bedieved!! This is not good at all! At times even עלות השחר would be late and people cant daven before they go to work even בדיעבד
[Children will also go to school when its pitch black]
Let’s hope that the House of Representitive and the President will reject this!!
This will have interesting ramifications for those people that daven vasikin during the winter.
Can someone please tell him that it’s Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings Time?
For Jews this is not a good thing. To think that for some weeks during the Winter Netz won’t be till 8:27 is a problem for davening; both for yeshivos as well as the working people.
Neitz at 8:10!? Oh boy!
Shachris in the winter anyone? Netz at 8:18?? What will balabatim do? Same problem in England.
“The bill also does not create new time zones, nor does it change the amount of hours of sunlight per day.”
The real accomplishment will be when they figure out how to change the amount of hours of sunlight per day through statute.
“The bill also does not create new time zones, nor does it change the amount of hours of sunlight per day.”
Is there anyone who might have thought that the number of hours of sunlight per day could be changed by law?
So it’s okay to have sunrises past 8 o’clock am in the winter? There are good reasons for the current system that we have now. I hope that this isn’t a rushed decision.
Good luck to all Luach/Calendar makers…
OK. So now we will need to Daven Shachris after we get to work. Lovely!
Huge shacharis problem, especially for places like Detroit.
We were really blindsided by this one! The objections from our community that were urgently put forward when this was attempted years ago include (1) Sunrise in the NY area around 8:20 in December, forcing one to daven shachris much later and making it difficult to be at work on time, and (2) the problem of children having to wait at bus stops in the dark. These problems indeed surfaced during a brief period when this approach was mandated under President Carter, creating many problems. Contact your Congressman!!
Oh that would be great, it will give the Democrats more daylight to figure out how to tax us more!
When we fiddled with Daylight Saving Time in the winter of 1974, in response to a dramatic spike in the price of oil, I remember that many school children were waiting for their school buses in the dark, and some were injured or killed by autos. Senators have short memories.
This what happens whens normal people think that crazy things won’t happen and let their guard down, the crazy’s get full rain
B’eH it will not be nogeia us when winter returns next year!
Chasdei Hashem!!! Finally!!!
What many commentators here don’t realize is the toll it has on many people’s health, not to mention the number of deaths and accidents that happen every year on daylights savings time. Saving lives is more important than your struggle to get out of bed five minutes earlier.
People in Phoenix, AZ have been living w/o DST for years and I have not seen them struggling to get a minyan together as a result.
Sadly this was decreed as a punishment for the numerous people who don’t eat סעודת שלישית during winter, and now shall really have no excuse to give to their Maker for not eating סעודת שלישית if this evil decree השם ירחם passes into law.
I guess all frum communities will switch to camp time like we did in ny summer camps. In camp Aguda we were on CAT and that was camp Aguda time. This made it easier for the camp on Shabbos and Taaneisim
Softwords please pay attention. Read the article again. You have it backwards
What a neis this would be!
Men shouldn’t be working anyway, they should be sitting in yeshiva all day. Hopefully this will further motivate people to just simply quit and go study.
Maybe it should be a half hour daylight savings time?
Good news if you work for goyim and have to get home on a Friday afternoon, or are trying to get somewhere on a Friday. More time for housewives (and others) to make Shabbos, and more time for Shabbos guests to get to their destination.
Bad news is you are trying to daven with a minyan in the morning before going to work (assuming you work for goyim, if you work for Yidden they can just start work later).
They should abolish DST altogether. The world used standard time year round because it was logical. Time to go back.
Softwords, you idiot, nobody is objecting to getting rid of DST. Aderaba, I think most of us would be happy with it. But this is NOT getting rid of it, it’s making it permanent! Instead of only suffering for 8 months, we’d have it for 12 months! That’s not making things better, it’s making them worse!
And if you think NYC will have it bad, think about places like Western Michigan. Sunrise in midwinter in Grand Rapids already gets to 8:13. If they had DST it would be 9:13.
Why can’t they just cancel daylight savings time?
Bad news is that not only did the Senate pass the bill unanimously (by voice vote after having it cleared by the leadership teams on both sides) but the House has already held hearings on permanent DST and there appears to be bipartisan support for passage. Pelosi has said she supports the bill and so do most of the conservative Republicans. The White House has NOT yet taken a position on the subject but Biden’s domestic policy council staff have supported the concept in principle.
As of now, the liklihood is that it will pass and become law. Agudah et. al. seem to have been blindsided but even had they acted earlier, its unlikely that inconveniencing a minority of a minority would have changed the political outcome given the popularity of the idea.
For the six New England states Atlantic Standard Time (UTC-4:00) all year would make more sense. For NY, NJ, and PA it doesn’t really matter so let them choose either EST or AST – but stick to one, and enough with the constant clock changes. Other states like Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana should keep to EST (UTC-5:00) all year.