Status Summary
The Oklahoma legislature has four DST-related bills for the 2016 session:
- HB 2557 was authored by Representative Wright, and proposes to exempt the state from DST, with an effective date of November 1, 2016.
- HB 2853 was authored by Representative Kouplen, and contains the exact same language as HB 2557.
- SB 1228 was authored by Senator Yen and proposes to establish a Daylight Saving Time Preservation Pact which would take effect when 20 states also enter the pact, and all states would switch to Year-Round Daylight Saving Time. Representative Rousselot is House co-author.
- SB 1229, also authored by Senator Yen and co-author Representative Rousselot, would simply adopt Year-Round DST on November 1, 2016.
Legislation Intent
The House bills would stop DST after 2016, though, as written, they would actually stop DST almost a week too soon. With an effective date of Tuesday November 1, 2016, and DST ending this year on Sunday November 6, 2016, the bill (unless amended) would actually stop DST early!
SB 1228, similar to Missouri’s HJR 60, puts the state on Year-Round DST if a certain number of states join into their “pact”.
SB 1229 would attempt to put the state on Year-Round DST after going on to DST in March of 2016.
