Twice a year, Arizonans get to skip a ritual performed in much of the rest of the country: moving clocks ahead by an hour in the spring and back an hour in the fall.
But lots of other states are considering joining Arizona in keeping their clocks where they are, as is the federal government. The question, though, seems to be whether to stay permanently on daylight saving time — or to do away with it.
Humberto Sanchez of Pluribus News, which covers state legislatures; has written about what states are thinking about in this area and joined The Show to discuss.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: So what are states thinking about in this area like this? It seems like there are more and more states that are trying to take up this issue one way or the other.
HUMBERTO SANCHEZ: Absolutely. There’s a lot of interest in stopping the switching of the clock. And as you said, the disagreement is over whether to have more light in the morning or more lightning in the evening. There’s been about, 31 states, introduced 70 pieces of legislation this year to take on that issue and, and it falls roughly 50/50. There’s a real split over which time to observe.
BRODIE: That seems like it would be super confusing if half the states are doing something and half the states are not.
SANCHEZ: Yeah, absolutely. And really, the only avenue for states is to switch to permanent permanent standard time, which is what Arizona is on. Yeah. And there’s a lot of states, about 20 states have already passed bills to move to permanent daylight saving time. But that requires Congress to act, because under the current law, you can only opt out of daylight saving, and you can’t move to permanent daylight saving.
BRODIE: Well, so there has been some talk, President Trump has talked about daylight saving time and what he would like to do about it. Does it seem as though there might be movement from the federal government to just settle this for the country once and for all?
SANCHEZ: Yeah, absolutely. The fact that the president’s talking about it at all brings a lot of attention to the issue. We saw in 2022 that the Senate actually passed a bill to move to permanent daylight saving time. The House didn’t do anything with the bill, so it died.
But President Trump has been very keen on the issue, though he’s come down on all sides of it in his various pronouncements on it. And most recently, he’s advocated for permanent daylight saving time. But in December he called on Republicans in Congress to move to abolish it.
BRODIE: What are the different arguments for the states that are looking to just stay on standard time, as Arizona does? What is their thinking behind doing that?
SANCHEZ: So the the thinking is, people that support daylight saving, moving to daylight saving say that it’s it’s good for the economy. It give stores an extra hour to collect more sales. It’s good for recreation — golfing, swimming, hiking — there’s more economic boost there. There is an economic boost there from being able to do that longer in the day.
There’s also less crime. Studies are showing — I think the Brookings Institution had a report a couple years back that said that the nation saves about $59 million a year in avoided social costs by the reduced reduction of crime due to daylight saving. And it also saves some energy, because people are spending less time indoors and need less air conditioning and heating and lighting and so forth.
BRODIE: How about for the states that are looking to do away with daylight saving and just stay on standard time. What’s their argument?
SANCHEZ: So the standard time argument is basically health focused. Health experts say that it’s more aligned with the body’s natural circadian rhythms. It’s better for sleep. And sleep is huge. Bad sleep is the culprit for driving accidents and all kinds of things. Mental health, they say it’s better for mental health.
And one lawmaker in Pennsylvania said basically that this is the only action states can take, seeing as moving to passing a law, moving to permanent daylight saving is just only symbolic.
And while on permanent daylight saving, the sunrise in some parts of the country will be between 3 and 4 in the morning. Health experts say and supporters say that you could easily sleep through those early hours. And even, the earlier sunsets will help you get to sleep at night.
BRODIE: I guess sales of blackout curtains will go way up in some of those states.
SANCHEZ: That’s right.
BRODIE: Does it seem to break down any particular way in terms of which states are thinking about trying to switch just to standard time versus daylight saving? For example, in Arizona in the summertime, we don’t need another hour of sunlight when it’s 115 degrees outside. Is there any kind of breakdown in terms of warm weather states versus cold weather states or anything like that?
SANCHEZ: Not that I’ve noticed that. You have the East Coast states mostly wanting to stay on permanent daylight saving. But it’s funny that a lot of these are conditioned on other states acting the same way.
And so it’s very regionally focused. But as far as the breakdown, I think that it’s more to the east that you see more permanent daylight saving folks and more to the West, maybe more standard time folks. But it really is a 50/50 issue, just like the president had said.
BRODIE: Does it seem as though — at least for the states that are looking to ditch daylight saving, the states that are looking to do what they’re able to do — does it look like they’re actually going to do it this year? Might there be more states like Arizona in the not too distant future?
SANCHEZ: Well, Nevada is looking to do that. And it’s passed one chamber. We’ll have to see whether it has the momentum we get to get through the next chamber. Texas also has passed a bill, but they want to stay on permanent daylight saving.
And Oregon has a bill that actually, it will allow for moving to permanent standard time if California and Washington act within 10 years, but it also has a provision allowing for them to stay on permanent daylight saving if Washington and California act in the same way. So we’re all over the map in those states as well.
