Editorial: Congress, let’s not do the time warp again; ever

By The Herald Editorial Board

No offense to fans of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” but let’s not do the time warp again. Ever.

Maybe it’s a fun dance at the art house movie theaters that show the cult classic, but it’s a lousy way of living our lives, changing time standards and clocks twice a year, especially when there’s no switch on the back of our necks to easily shift our bodies’ internal clocks from standard time to daylight saving time, then back, then forth, ad nauseam.

With any luck — or just an act of Congress — last Sunday morning might be the last time you’ll have to make the twice-annual tour of your home’s clocks to reset them.

Already, Washington state, six of its neighbors and 12 other states have passed legislation that would permanently adopt daylight saving time; so, no more time shifting, no more 4 p.m. sunsets in winter, no more loss of sleep and grogginess in spring.

So what’s delaying the end of our twice-yearly time warp dance?

In a word: Congress. While states can elect to stick with standard time year round — something that Hawaii and Arizona have already done — federal lawmakers have the final authority to allow a switch to stick with daylight saving time. While there has been bipartisan legislation in recent years to do just that — promoted by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif. — the Sunshine Protection Act has yet to get a floor vote in either chamber.

That may change, following a hearing last week before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which included testimony that the switch back and forth is not only annoying but is disturbing sleep patterns, has been linked to cardiac problems and accidents on the roads and on the job and is responsible for other health and safety concerns.

Among those testifying before this weekend’s change to daylight saving time was Steve Calandrillo, a University of Washington law professor, who has studied the issue for years.

“There’s going to be more car accidents on the Monday following this Sunday switch, and it’s because we’re going to mess up people’s sleep cycles,” Calandrillo told The Washington Post prior to his testimony.

In a 2019 commentary published in The Herald, Calandrillo noted five ways that a permanent switch to daylight saving time would save lives and energy, discourage crime and help most of us get better sleep and be healthier.

Lives: Calandrillo noted that evening rush hour — because there are more drivers on the road at the same time — is twice as fatal as the morning commute, and vehicle-pedestrian accidents increase threefold after the sun goes down. An extra hour of evening sunlight would lower those risks.

Crime: More sunlight in the afternoon and evening would likewise work to prevent crime. A 2013 British study found that more light in the evenings reduced the incidence of crime by 20 percent.

Energy: Most of us are awake later into the evening than are up and about before sunrise, so permanent DST would mean a decrease in the amount of electricity used.

Sleep: Stopping the twice-yearly time shift also would help us sleep better, allowing us to avoid having to adjust our sleep cycles and its effects on our health. Heart attacks increase 24 percent in the week after the U.S. “springs forward” each March.

More in Congress seem interested in stopping the back-and-forth time changes, if not yet sold on which one — daylight saving or standard — to go with. The public, on the other hand, seems more convinced and ready to go with DST, PDQ.

Asked if they wanted to stop the changing of clocks, 63 percent of Americans told an Economist-YouGov poll in November they wanted one year-round time standard; only 16 percent wanted to keep switching between the two; and if Democrat and Republican voters rarely agree on much, on this they agreed: 67 percent from each demographic want to ditch the switch.

The numbers were as significant when asked to pick between the two, daylight saving or standard; 48 percent said they prefer daylight saving time; 29 percent wanted standard time. Again party preference didn’t show much difference; 51 percent of Democratic voters and 47 percent of Republican voters chose DST.

Not that there aren’t some who don’t see the need to spend time on this.

The Post story notes that Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., who represents the state’s 5th Congressional District in and around Spokane, and is the energy and commerce committee’s leading Republican, said there were other topics better worth its time.

“There remain many issues that this committee should be prioritizing before daylight saving, like unleashing American energy to help Ukraine and counter Russian aggression,” McMorris Rodgers said.

But there’s no time like the present to make a change that can result in better sleep, health and mood for most Americans. A point that Sen. Murray made in a statement two days after the House hearing:

“Before Daylight Saving Time ends this year, I want to see the bipartisan Sunshine Protection Act on the floor of the Senate for a vote,” Murray said. “Congress can walk and stop the clocks from changing at the same time; for goodness sake, time to get this done.”

Bucking its reputation for gridlock, Congress recently has found its bipartisan playbook and adopted significant legislation, starting with last year’s infrastructure spending package and the pandemic relief act, and more recently with the passage of an aid package for Ukraine, reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, this year’s budget bills and funding reforms that will keep the U.S. Postal Service delivering six days a week.

Nobody’s questioning the importance of issues like fighting inflation, U.S. energy independence or aiding in Ukraine’s defense, but if it saves Americans from losing an hour of sleep each March, Congress should take the time to end a pointless exercise in time travel.