We live in time: Daylight Savings and the 'Time Lords' of Congress
We live in time.
We can both make time. Even double time. And we can also lose time.
But it’s Congress and Presidents who control time.
Politicians have the power to dictate time. Down to the hour and the minute of what time it is. That’s why we spring forward this weekend. And when you lose your hour of sleep, you know who to blame.
No. Not DOGE.
But Congress, of course.
This dates back more than two centuries.
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Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution grants Congress the power to “fix the Standard of Weights and Measures.”
That’s listed right next to Congressional authority over bankruptcies and punishment for counterfeiters.
After all, we lose an hour this weekend like a thief in the night.
Congress formally established Daylight Saving Time with the Uniform Time Act of 1966. It also established time zones in the 1880s to help the railroads coordinate. Before that, time hinged on whatever locals said it was. That led to 144 distinct local times in the U.S. The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul even went by different clocks, despite only being separated by the Mississippi River.
So, lawmakers are kind of like “Time Lords” from Doctor Who. But while they have not waged the Last Great Time War, for some lawmakers, time has expired for the biannual time change.
“I haven’t had anybody come to me and say, ‘This is something that benefits our society.’ Why do we have it around anymore? Let’s get rid of the antiquated stuff that hold us back from advancement,” said Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga.
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Florida lawmakers push especially hard to codify the time change in law. After all, Florida is the Sunshine State. Much of the state’s economy is based on what you can do outdoors. Sunbathe. Golf. Walk on the beach. Go to amusement parks.
“In tourism, it’s huge,” said Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla. “Instead of getting dark at 5:39, it gets dark at 6:30. It makes a big difference. A lot of times the weather’s nice (people) like to be outside eating.”
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., pushed time change legislation when he served as governor of the Sunshine State. He’s authored a bill which he believes will give all states more sunshine – by effectively freezing time.
“It will lock the clock. So stop going back and forth between Daylight Savings Time and Standard Time,” said Scott.
Former Sen. and now Secretary of State Marco Rubio, R-Fla., authored a bill to mandate Daylight Saving Time year-round several years ago. To everyone’s surprise, the Senate approved the bill by unanimous consent in 2022. But the bill then died in the House.
Congress approved the Standard Time Act to create the first version of Daylight Saving time in 1918 during World War I. Proponents of the legislation argued that there was “wasted light” at the beginning of the day. Shifting the clocks would reward Americans with “extra” hours of daylight in the evening.
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“I used to think my state legislature had the foolishiest ideas in the world,” said Rep. Robert Thomas, D-Ky., of the measure at the time. “But it never tried to change the sun in its orbit.”
Farmers and residents of the west opposed the plan.
President Woodrow Wilson wanted to keep the time change. But Congress voted to repeal it. Wilson then vetoed the bill.
What comes next is one of the most fascinating aspects of time legislation, Congress and the presidency. There have only been 112 successful overrides of a presidential veto in American history. One of them is on a piece of time legislation. Congress overrode Wilson’s veto and gave back the hour it picked up during World War I.
Presidents have tinkered with changing the time via executive order to maximize daylight during times of crisis.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt shifted the clocks during World War II. President Richard Nixon did the same during the OPEC oil shocks of the 1970s.
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It was thought that President Trump may wade into the time waters. He’s berated the seasonal time changes for years now, dating back to his first term in office. Mr. Trump posted about the time switch on Truth Social as recently as mid-December.
“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t! Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation,” wrote the president.
But President Trump wasn’t inclined to turn back time when pressed about it by colleague Peter Doocy on Thursday.
“It’s a 50/50 issue. And if something is a 50/50 issue, it’s hard to get excited about it. I assume people would like to have more light later. But some people want to have more light earlier because they don’t want to take their kids to school in the dark,” said Mr. Trump.
The problem is that most people abhor changing the clocks. But they worry about it getting dark way too early in the winter. Or the sun “rising” at absurd times in the summer.
It depends on where you live.
The country may harbor deep political divisions. But at least one lawmaker believes it’s time Americans rally around something.
“I’d love for us to not have to switch our clocks if that’s something that actually probably can unite Americans right now,” said Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J.
But at least once senior lawmaker hasn’t given the time of day to clock shifting efforts.
“You have thoughts on daylight savings?” asked colleague Ryan Schmelz of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
Jeffries chuckled.
“There’s a lot going on in the United States of America. I haven’t been able to give a thought to daylight savings,” replied Jeffries.
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Shakespeare wrote that “let every man be master of his time.” But that’s hard to do when Congress decides the time. Of course, the Bard also declared that “what is past is prologue.”
And that means that despite the legislative efforts, everyone will probably have to change the clocks again in October when we fall back.