Time Change Poll Daylight Savings vs Standard

What do you think about the twice-yearly clock switches that take an hour of your sleep in the spring and give it back in the fall? The Enterprise will be surveying voters in the coming weeks about this issue to call attention to several bills now making their way through the Texas Legislature and the U.S. Congress that would abolish clock changes.

Federal law prohibits states from switching permanently to daylight savings time, but they can opt to stay on standard time with a vote from their state legislatures. The last time the nation tried permanent daylight savings time in 1974, it was dropped eight months into a two-year experiment after parents complained about traffic accidents involving children going to school in the dark.

Senate Bill 2329 and Senate Joint Resolution 86, two companion bills in Austin by Sen. Paul Bettancourt (R-Houston) and Rep. Mike Schofield (R-Katy, Cypress) would give Texans a vote at the Nov. 7 General Election on whether to keep daylight saving time. Those bills were referred to the Senate State Affairs Committee on March 23, according to the Texas Legislature Online website.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio’s (R-Florida) “Sunshine Protection Act of 2023” would allow states to adopt daylight saving time permanently. In March 2022, a previous version of Sen. Rubio’s bill passed the Senate unanimously but was held in the U.S. House of Representatives.

State Rep. David Spiller (R-Olney) says he “is not a fan of switching back and forth between the two semi-annually” and favors switching permanently to Daylight Savings Time.

We asked Mayor Pro Tem Tom Parker and City Council candidate Terri Whipperman their opinions on the matter.

Q: Should we keep changing the time?

Tom Parker: No, leave it as one time. I really don’t care if it’s daylight savings or not, but just leave it. Set it and leave it and move on.

Q: Why should we set it and leave it? Tom Parker: Just the disruption for daycare and workers and quality of life. Let’s just standardize on something and move forward.

Q: Should we keep changing the clocks?

Terri Whipperman: I would rather not change the time and leave it like it is right now (daylight savings time) because when it gets dark, I go to bed. So I go to bed at 6 and 7 o’clock at night and get up at 3 o’clock in the morning.

If you’d like to share your opinion about clock changes, daylight savings time or this legislation, email us your thoughts and a photo of yourself to editor@ olneyenterprise.com.