Things that have to happen to stay in Daylight Saving Time.
Last spring, bills hit the Colorado and U.S. legislatures to get rid of the biannual tradition of changing the clocks. In fact, the debate turned from whether or not we should get rid of the time-changing tradition to if we should stay in standard time (the time during winter) or stay in daylight saving time (the time during the summer).
The debate went back and forth as to whether the state and country should stay in regular time so that it is light earlier in the morning during the wintertime or to keep daylight saving time so there is an hour more of sunlight in the evenings. In Colorado, two bills hit the legislature, one that wanted permanent standard time, and one that opted for the state to stay in daylight saving time.
Permanent Daylight Saving Bill Gains Approval
In the end, the bill to stay in daylight saving time was the only one to make it through both the state House and Senate. According to an article published by Colorado Politics, Senate Bill 135, which would have kept Colorado in standard time, was killed by a Senate panel in favor of HB-1297, which would keep the state in daylight saving time.
HB-1297 ended up passing in the state Senate with a 27-7 vote last May after the House approved it 50-12 in April. The governor signed the bill into law last June leading people to think that Coloradans would never have to change their clocks again.
However, the passing of the bill came with a catch. And there are some stipulations that will have to take place before Colorado can stop changing the clock. Therefore, the state is still scheduled to change the clocks back one hour on Nov. 6 and nothing will change until possible fall of 2023.
Stipulations to Daylight Saving Year-Round Bill
According to an article published in the Coloradoan, there are still two things that must happen in order for Colorado to stay in daylight saving time after next summer.
“First, the federal government must enact a law to allow states the option to choose if they want to go on permanent daylight-saving time or opt to standard time,” the Coloradoan reported. “Second, at least four other states in the Mountain Time Zone must choose year-round daylight saving time for the Colorado law to go into effect.”
Federal Law to Keep Daylight Saving Time
The first stipulation has made some strides, but the federal government has not yet officially passed the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021. In fact, the Colorado Daylight Saving Bill was introduced this year mainly due to the fact that the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection Act last March.
If passed on a national level, the bill would make daylight saving time the new and permanent standard time starting on Nov. 5, 2023. The passing of the bill would also let states decide whether they want to keep standard time or daylight saving time.
But then according to an article published by The Hill last July, the federal bill “hit a brick wall” in the U.S. House four months after it was passed by the Senate. The article reported that lawmakers had disagreements over the bill’s language and there was a general consensus that there were other matters on the table that took precedence.
“I can’t say it’s a priority,” Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), told The Hill. “We have so many other priorities, but it doesn’t mean because it’s not a priority that we’re not trying to work on it. We are. If we can accomplish anything, it wouldn’t be until the fall.”
Pallone also said that most in the House agree that changing the clocks needs to stop, but they disagree on whether the country should stay in standard time or daylight-saving time.
“We continue to try to come up with a consensus but so far, it’s eluded us,” Pallone said. “The problem is that a lot of people say to me, ‘Oh, we should just have, you know, we shouldn’t switch back and forth, we should just have standard or daylight saving,’ but then they disagree over which one to enact. And so that’s the problem. We need a consensus that if we’re gonna have one time, what is it? And I haven’t been able to get a consensus on that.”
Colorado Needs One More State to Commit to Year-Round Daylight Saving Time
The second stipulation of Colorado’s bill states that the Centennial State will only permanently adopt daylight saving time next fall if four other states inside the same time zone pass similar bills. As the Coloradoan article reports, so far only Montana, Wyoming, and Utah have passed permanent daylight-saving time laws.
Arizona is in the Mountain Time Zone, but it has already opted to stay on standard time so Arizonans outside of the Navajo Nation haven’t been forced to change their clocks since 1968. In New Mexico, lawmakers voted in 2021 to reject the daylight-saving proposal and keep both times.
So unless New Mexico or Arizona has a change of heart, the only other state that could opt to keep daylight saving time permanent would be Southern Idaho (Northern Idaho is in the Pacific Time Zone), which has not yet voted on the measure.
All in all, many may be disappointed to learn that Coloradans will have to change their clocks at least two more times (Nov. 6, 2022, and March 12, 2023). And it will take the stars to align just right for the state to end the clock-changing tradition in November 2023.
