Nebraska lawmakers are another step closer to ending the twice-a-year switching of clocks back and forth one hour, but whether that is by shifting year-round to standard time or daylight saving time hasn’t been decided.
The Legislature’s eight-member Government, Military, and Veterans Affairs Committee voted unanimously Thursday to advance State Sen. Megan Hunt’s Legislative Bill 34 for year-round daylight saving time and State Sen. Dave Murman’s LB 302 for year-round standard time.
Standard time is how most clocks are set in the United States during the winter, whereas daylight saving time is the period between the second Sunday in March (to “spring ahead” one hour) and the first Sunday in November (to “fall back” one hour to standard time).
Last week, organizations supporting youth sports and golf urged the committee to embrace daylight saving time, which causes the sun to set later in the summer.
The national group Save Standard Time urged the committee to include the “honest, natural clock, set to the sun” as part of permanent standard time, citing its numerous natural benefits.
Hunt, a committee member, said she prefers daylight saving time because the sun sets later in the summer, but the overall goal is to eliminate clock switching.
“I don’t care which way we set the clocks,” Hunt wrote in a January text. “I just support stopping the madness of changing the time twice a year.”
Both bills would not take effect until other neighboring states enacted similar laws:
- For Hunt’s bill, three adjacent states to Nebraska would need to adopt a single year-round standard of time.
- For Murman’s bill, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota and Wyoming would all need to adopt legislation for year-round standard time. State Sen. Teresa Ibach of Sumner has said the list should include Colorado, to prevent a “ southwest Nebraska time-zone island .”
Year-round daylight saving time is currently prohibited by federal law, but year-round standard time is permitted, which is observed in Hawaii and Arizona (excluding the Navajo Nation).
Committee members were divided on the issue, with State Sen. Dunixi Guereca of Omaha expressing a possible preference for permanent daylight saving time to have sun later in the summer for drinking margaritas, and State Sen. Dan Lonowski of Hastings noting that later sun could benefit youth sports and businesses at night.
The committee chair, State Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue, inquired about year-round daylight saving time, which causes some students to wait at bus stops in the dark during the winter months.
Lonowski also mentioned the purported health benefits of permanent standard time, which have been touted by major medical organizations.
Doctors have noted that changing the clock twice a year has negative health consequences, including an increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, accidents, and mental health disruptions.
Later this year, the committee will consider Legislative Resolution 33, introduced by State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, which would leave the decision on permanent standard or daylight saving time entirely up to Congress. If passed, the resolution would call on Nebraska’s five-member congressional delegation to take “affirmative action” on clock-change reform.
It reads as follows: “Such reform should advance Nebraska’s commitment to enhancing individual and family health, growing economic productivity, protecting agriculture, advancing Nebraska’s public safety goals and ensuring national uniformity.”
On Thursday, the committee did not discuss a proposal to change Nebraska’s method of allocating Electoral College votes for president to winner-take-all. It also rejected, for the time being, a proposal to prohibit local governments from considering rent control measures.
