1 Year later – Daylight Saving Time reform in Florida – Rubio & co take up the fight federally
Bottom Line: I have two pet peeves that come with Daylight Saving Time, which happens once again this weekend. This first is when people call it “savings”, it’s not. It’s saving. The second is that we have it at all. If you were listening a year ago when the bill to abolish time changes was making its way through the state legislature, you’ll likely recall my passion for this topic. Everything about time changes is intellectually insulting to me. I reject the premise of them.
There are 24 hours in a day and generally 365 days per year. Period. We don’t have 363 days that are 24 hours packaged around one that’s 23 hours and one that’s 25. That’s man-made bull crap. Anyway, back to the law...
While Florida passed the law to end time changes last year, it requires federal passage before we can legally make the move to stay in reality. As you know, “requiring an act of congress” doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence. That being said... It’s a new year, a new congress and Floridians in the US House and Senate are making the case.
Florida’s now senior Senator Marco Rubio, and junior Senator Rick Scott, have proposed a bill in the Senate that’d end time changes in Florida, sticking with Daylight Saving Time. Marco proposed this last year but now is aided by the man who signed it into law in Florida last year making the case in the Senate as well. Additionally, in the US House representative Vern Buchannan has authored a similar bill. My fingers are crossed that the federal government won’t hold up what we’ve already made clear that we want in Florida.
Rubio’s making the case, based on a J.P. Morgan study, that between 2.2% to 4.9% declines in economic activity take place when we exit Daylight Saving Time.