The Senate unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection Act to end Daylight Savings

Because Im a cat-mom, Daylight Savings Time doesnt bother me too much. My fking cats wake me up at random moments in the middle of the night and early in the morning, rain or shine, regardless of what the human clock says. If anything, Ive gotten better at adapting my daily rhythms over the years

Because I’m a cat-mom, Daylight Savings Time doesn’t bother me too much. My f–king cats wake me up at random moments in the middle of the night and early in the morning, rain or shine, regardless of what the human clock says. If anything, I’ve gotten better at adapting my daily rhythms over the years too. But yeah, people always complain. People always have a hard time with it, especially “spring forward,” when we lose an hour of weekend time and suddenly we have all of this sunshine at 7pm. So Congress decided to do something about it. They’re going to…make Daylight Savings permanent? As in, no more moving the clock around at all. We’ll hold it here?

A bipartisan group of senators has tried and failed, for Congress after Congress, to keep America on daylight saving time permanently. Until Tuesday, when their bright idea finally cleared the chamber. Just two days after the nation’s latest stressful “spring forward” to the later sunsets of daylight saving time, the Senate unanimously and surprisingly passed Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) bill to lock the clocks. The quick and consequential move happened so fast that several senators said afterward they were unaware of what had just happened.

Shortly after the Senate came back from a recess for a GOP lunch and a Democratic visit to the White House, Rubio took to the floor and passed a bill with a name befitting his state, the Sunshine Protection Act.

“If we can get this passed, we don’t have to keep doing this stupidity anymore,” Rubio said. “Why we would enshrine this in our laws and keep it for so long is beyond me.”

As he made his request, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), presiding over the Senate, appeared to exclaim: “Oh, I love it.” (Sinema’s state does not observe daylight saving time.)

Though some senators had offered objections to the proposal in recent days, all of them melted away in the end, said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), one of Rubio’s partners on the bill. He said the bill’s backers intentionally waited until the nation was reeling from yet another time change, which occurred on Sunday: “We did try and get it done once the clocks had just changed. Because it made it more timely.”

But the drama isn’t over yet. Whitehouse said he has not received an assurance from Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the permanent-DST bill’s future in the House. Rubio said he hoped colleagues across the Capitol would “act quickly on it” and summed things up: “Pardon the pun, but: This is an idea whose time has come.”

[From Politico]

The Sunshine Protection Act – what a stupid name – actually passed the Senate unanimously. These f–kers can’t agree on reproductive rights, guns or gay rights, but they agree that this clock thing is making everyone grumpy. I remember John Oliver devoted a segment to Daylight Savings a few years ago, really studying it from every angle, and he was basically like “this makes no sense, we should stop doing it.” Usually, it doesn’t work like that though. Maybe it will this time? Also: this means we’ll never “fall back” ever again? But that was my precious extra hour in the fall!! BOO!

The Washingtonian has a great piece about the time the US tried to do permanent Daylight Savings. It was in the 1970s during the energy crisis and people haaaaated it. Because it was so dark in the late fall and winter mornings, basically.

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(180314) — WASHINGTON D.C., March 14, 2018 () — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio speaks during a press conference regarding Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Act of 2018 at the Capitol in Washington D.C. March 13, 2018. (/Yang Chenglin) (jmmn),Image: 533789862, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS excluding China – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: Yang Chenglin / Avalon United States Senator Marco Rubio (Republican of Florida) speaks to members of the media during a brief recess in the impeachment trial of United States President Donald J. Trump at the United States Capitol in Washington D.C., U.S., on Monday, February 3, 2020. The Senate is set to hear closing statements today, with a final vote expected Wednesday. Credit: Stefani Reynolds / CNP | usage worldwide

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