Time Zone Report

Following Daylight Saving Time legislation in the US

Oklahoma and South Dakota File Year-Round DST Bills for 2016

One bill was filed in South Dakota yesterday seeking to implement Year-Round Daylight Saving Time, and a whopping four DST-related bills were pre-filed in Oklahoma for their February 1 session start.  Two of the Oklahoma bills propose Year-Round DST, and the other two propose to drop DST entirely.

South Dakota Details

South Dakota had a bill last year in the House sponsored by Representatives Kaiser and Campbell, and co-sponsored by Senator Jensen.  But this year’s bill originates in the state senate, and has a show-drift of names on the sponsor list:TZR-SD-HeaderSponsors

View the bill details on the SD state legislative web site.

The odd part of this bill is that it appears to put the state on DST but says the measure “may not be construed to affect the standard time established by the United States law governing the movements of common carriers engaged in interstate commerce”.  Another attempt at getting around the restrictive provisions of 15 USB 260a.  It’s highly unlikely the US DOT would permit this to stand without a challenge.

Oklahoma Details

A dizzying array of bills out of Oklahoma will surely give the legislature something to ponder in between their fracking earthquakes.  So far we only have the titles to go by, since the state’s legislative web site links pointing to the text of the bills are all broken.

SB 1228 and SB 1229 are both sponsored by Senator Yen, one of which seems to create the “Daylight Saving Time Preservation Act”, and the other proposes to adopt Year-Round Daylight Saving Time, with an effective date.  It’s possible that either or both of these bills could tie in to adjacent state Missouri’s bills, which require 2 adjacent states to adopt measures similar to theirs in order to take effect.

HB 2557 (sponsored by Rep. Wright) and HB 2853 (sponsored by Rep. Kouplen) are both titled “Daylight saving time; exempting Oklahoma from federal daylight saving time provision; effective date” (with the word “the” added in the title of HB 2853).

So two bills leading to Year-Round DST, and two away from DST altogether.  We remind you again that Year-Round DST can’t happen.  So only the House bills have any chance of becoming law at this point.

Updated: January 22, 2016 — 9:20 am

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