Every year, come spring and fall, the debate continues: Should we take a timeout on daylight saving time?
One Florida legislator seems to think so.
Sen. Marco Rubio took to Twitter on Thursday to share his thoughts on moving clocks forward and backward, saying, “It makes no sense," even calling the biannual switch “stupid.”
In the video, he told viewers to call senators and lawmakers and urge them to “lock the clock.”
I prefer Daylight Savings over Standard but in the end what I really want is to end this stupid twice a year time shift. Let’s #LockTheClock https://t.co/9jPKJjeaHi pic.twitter.com/7qSg1RYPIv
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 5, 2020
In March 2018, then Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill into law to have Florida stay an hour ahead.
After the governor’s approval of the first bill, Rubio proposed another bill called the Sunshine Protection Act of 2018 to change daylight saving time for the whole country. All states would stay an hour ahead, and this would prevent Florida from being isolated on time. Congress, however, has to approve the move and hasn’t taken up the issue.
In a summary of the Sunshine Protection Act, reasons for supporting the bill include economic activity and tourism, while opposing reasons include dark bus stops and conserving energy.
The Wall Street Journal published an article outlining why health experts want to do away with the time change as well.
The Society for Research on Biological Rhythms published a study in 2019 that found the acute effect of daylight saving time in the days after the change are an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
Benjamin Franklin came up with the idea of the time change in 1784, but daylight saving time wasn't used in the United States until World War I in 1918 and again in for World War II in 1942, according to Life Science.
After World War II, each state could choose to observe a time change, but this caused confusion. In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act to create a uniform time change if the state chose to observe it. Today, Arizona and Hawaii are the only states to not observe daylight saving time. But Florida is trying to change that.
What do you think, should it stay or should it go? Vote below.