What Is the Sunshine Protection Act?

            The federal government may soon follow the example of sixteen states that want to make daylight savings time permanent. Florida is the latest state to pass a law to make daylight savings time permanent, but its law hinges on federal government action. The fifteen states preceding Florida’s action are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

            Recently a bipartisan group of eight senators reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act meant to extended daylight-saving time to year-round. Daylight-savings time currently lasts for eight months from 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March to 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday in November.

            Co-sponsors of the Sunshine Protection Act are Senators Marco Rubio (R-Florida), James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), Roy Blunt (R-Missouri), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi), Rick Scott (R-Florida, and Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts). Several senators made comments about the bill.

“Studies have shown many benefits of a year-round daylight saving time, which is why the Florida Legislature voted to make it permanent in 2018. I’m proud to reintroduce this bipartisan bill to make daylight saving time permanent, and give our nation’s families more stability throughout the year,” Rubio said.

“I don’t know a parent of a young child what would oppose getting rid of springing forward or falling back. Congress created daylight saving [time] decades ago as a wartime effort. Now, it is well past time to lock the clock and end this experiment,” Lankford said.

“Making daylight saving time permanent will end the biannual disruptions to daily life and give families more daylight hours to enjoy after work and school,” Whitehouse said.

            The change to permanent daylight-savings time is long overdue, so it is a good thing that the Senators have reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act. Steven Hall at The Daily Signal mentioned several good reasons for the permanent change. 

·         Possible reduction of incidents of cars hitting pedestrians because drivers will have better visibility when commuting time is also daylight hours.

·         An 8% to 11% reduction in automotive collisions with wildlife because animals move about at night.

·         Permanent change may result in fewer fatal car crashes.

·         Longer daylight hours in the evening means children and teens are involved in more outdoor activities.

Permanent daylight-savings time is a good thing for a lot of reasons. Changing times involves many areas of life. Being on a permanent time period makes life easier for children, teens, and adults.