State Lawmaker Plans Bill To End Daylight Saving Time In PA

A Pennsylvania state representative is tired of the state springing forward and falling back every year. Republican Russ Diamond of Lebanon County plans to introduce legislation to permanently place Pennsylvania on Eastern Standard Time.

“Daylight Saving Time, launched during World War 1 as an attempt to save energy, has outlived its usefulness,” Diamond wrote Monday in a memorandum to all House members. “There is no national crisis that changing clocks helps to alleviate.”

For virtually all of the country, Daylight Saving Time begins March 10 at 2 a.m., when the clocks are set ahead an hour. The only states that don’t observe it are Arizona and Hawaii, although the American territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands also do not.

But Diamond noted in his memo that federal law permits states to exempt themselves from Daylight Saving Time if their legislatures approve the move. According to Diamond, as many as 16 states have introduced legislation to end Daylight Saving Time observance in recent years, although none have done it.

According to Diamond, studies have shown that vehicular accidents, workplace injuries, heart attacks, strokes, cluster headaches, miscarriages, depression, and suicides all increase in the weeks following clock changes.

“These government-mandated interruptions of natural biological rhythms and sleep cycles can wreak havoc on job performance, academic results, and overall physical (and) mental health,” he contended.

Diamond did not indicate when he might introduce the legislation. He is seeking co-sponsors for the proposed bill.

Diamond’s proposal first was reported in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.

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