Time Zone Report

Following Daylight Saving Time legislation in the US

Sen Marco Rubio: DST Through November 2021?

United States Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) has sponsored a bill to observe Daylight Saving Time continuously through November 7, 2021.

The bill, S.4582, is entitled “To extend, temporarily, daylight saving time, and for other purposes.” Read the full text of the bill on the US Congress web site here.

The bill has moved through Congress, having been introduced on September 15, receiving a second reading on September 16, and then being placed directly on the Senate calendar without being routed through a committee for review. The bill has been placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders for Calendar 548, under paragraph 4 of Senate Rule XIV. “Calendar 548” refers to the order in which the bill will be considered. (Search for “4582” in the latest Senate Calendar here.)

It’s unclear to me at the moment — not being a political pundit familiar with all the intricacies of our Congress’ procedural administrivia — whether the move to place the bill directly on the Senate Calendar is a accelerating tactic or a delaying one.

As the only Daylight Saving Time-related bill in either the US Congress or any of the states which has a prayer of being passed and having meaningful impact [in my personal opinion], I’ll follow this bill and report on it’s progress… or lack thereof.

For now, it’s sufficient to say that there is a chance that the scheduled “fall back” of most American clocks this November will be delayed. In my home state of Arizona, where we don’t do Daylight Saving Time, we won’t really notice anything different, and neither will Hawaii, the only other state that has opted out of DST. For those of you in other states, though, you’ll be confused as heck by the all of your timepieces — some of which will change back to Standard Time anyway, because they didn’t get the word.

Updated: September 19, 2020 — 7:04 am

2 Comments

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  1. Thanks to Senator Rubio for walking this issue through. It’ll be an adjustment for a lot of people (including me!) but it will be good for everyone in the long run, imo.
    I’m looking forward to this coming winter under DST if at all possible!

  2. This measure is totally unnecessary. Senator Rubio has chosen this troubled time to ram this law through. He could have chosen to outlaw DST altogether. The science does not support his view. Extra daylight in the evening hours might have benefits in the southern states. But it has no real benefits in the northern states due to a colder winter climate. I’d say allow the clock to revert back one more time to Standard Time…and keep it there. It would be so much better for most people to scrap the return of DST next March. That would have made so much more sense. Enjoy your morning darkness. Live through one winter like what he and others are proposing. Experiencing this will likely make the ill-informed reconsider.

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