(KSN) We’re about a month away from having to change our clocks, but a group of lawmakers hopes this is the last time.
There’s a new resolution in the Kansas House that says the whole country should implement daylight saving time. A bipartisan group of 27 Kansas Representatives is urging Congress to make the change.
“I kind of realized people really care about this issue and it’s something that really affects us every day, more than a lot of the things we do up here in Topeka,” said the bill’s sponsor Liberal Representative Shannon Francis.
The change would require an act of Congress because states have the option to observe daylight saving time from the spring to fall or keep standard time all year round, like Arizona and Hawaii. States can’t put daylight saving time in place for the whole year.
Francis said he personally would rather keep standard for all time, but he believes people in his district would prefer daylight saving.
“I’m kind of in that camp of I really don’t care, I just want to quit changing the time twice a year,” Francis said.
But not every legislator wants to see a change.
“We as the lawmakers have to think about the whole year, not just those two weeks. Ever since I did hear about this, I’ve been looking outside when I get up in the morning when I’m driving,” said Lenexa Representative Jo Ella Hoye. “We would just be transferring the darkness that we’re experiencing during an evening rush hour to the morning rush hour.”
Standard time shifts more sun toward the morning. While daylight saving would provide more sunlight at night.
Hoye said switching to all daylight saving time would make mornings a lot harder to get going compared to what we currently have.
“We have a couple tough weeks where we have to adjust to a time change, but my concern is that we’ll be setting ourselves up for months of difficult time,” Hoye said.
Most lawmakers want to see a federal standard to prevent a patchwork approach where times could change at each border.
Lawmakers will have to vote the resolution out of committee for the full House to decide whether to send the message to Congress.
