PA Once Again To Grapple With Permanent Standard Time Issue

PENNSYLVANIA — A state lawmaker plans to reintroduce a bill that would eliminate Daylight Saving Time in Pennsylvania and keep the state permanently on Eastern Standard Time.

Republican state Rep. Russ Diamond of Lebanon County announced Monday that he will introduce legislation for the House's 2023-24 session to end the outdated ritual of “springing forward and falling back” in Pennsylvania. A previous bill along those lines was approved by the House State Government Committee in 2021 but did not make it to the House floor for a full vote.

"Changing clocks twice every year simply because we’ve always done it that way is not enough reason to continue the practice," Diamond said. "Federal law allows a state to exempt itself from changing clocks and observing DST, upon action by the state legislature to do so. As the Keystone State, Pennsylvania should be the leader among surrounding states in ending the practice."

The move flies in the face of a U.S. Senate effort earlier this year to have the entire nation permanently on daylight saving time. Senators unanimously approved the Sunshine Protection Act, but the House did not vote on the bill.

Under the federal Uniform Time Act, states currently are permitted to permanently go to standard time but not daylight saving time. Both the House and Senate would have to approve the Sunshine Protection Act bill and have the president sign the measure for it to become law.

State legislatures have considered at least 450 bills and resolutions in recent years to establish year-round daylight saving time as soon as federal law permits it, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Inherent in the debate, according to the conference, is whether to adopt permanent standard or permanent daylight time.

In a memo to colleagues on Monday, Diamond - whose efforts on the standard time issue date to 2019 - said there may be more negative side effects from changing clocks than benefits.

"Studies have shown that automobile accidents, workplace injuries, heart attacks, strokes, cluster headaches, depression, and suicides all increase in the weeks following clock changes," he said. "These interruptions of natural biological rhythms and sleep cycles can wreak havoc on job performance, academic results, and overall physical-mental health."

But which time would be the best to enact permanently?

One Rutgers University study predicted that full-year Daylight Saving Time would reduce reduce pedestrian fatalities by 171 per year, or by 13 percent of all pedestrian fatalities in the 5 a.m.-10 a.m. and the 4 p.m.-9 p.m. time periods. Motor vehicle occupant fatalities would be reduced by 195 per year, or 3 percent, during the same time periods.

Standard time begins in the United States on the first Sunday in November, with clocks being set back an hour. Daylight Saving Time begins on the second Sunday in March, with clocks being set forward by an hour.