LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — It’s still a few months away, but come November, we’ll all have to engage in that twice-yearly ritual of changing our clocks.
Efforts to end the clock change are regular features in Washington, D.C. and Carson City, but so far, no bill has passed Congress or the state Legislature.
WATCH | Senior Political Report Steve Sebelius has the latest on the measure:
Most recently, the House, by an overwhelming margin, passed the Sunshine Protection Act, with a bipartisan vote of 308-117.
The bill, which would make daylight saving time permanent, now goes to the U.S. Senate, where the prospects are uncertain.
But Assemblywoman Selena La Rue Hatch of Washoe County says the House action won’t stop her from bringing back her own bill to establish permanent standard time.
“My goal all along is just to stop these time changes,” she says. “As I said before, we know the health impacts, we know the disruption it’s having in the economy, to people’s lives, and I think we’re seeing from the reaction to this House bill that people overwhelmingly want to stop changing these clocks.”
La Rue Hatch points to an increase in medical problems such as heart attacks and strokes following a time change, not to mention car accidents and lost productivity at work.
And it’s not just her, either. Groups including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the Society for Research of Biological Rhythms and the National Sleep Foundation all support ending time changes.
The House bill isn’t a part of La Rue Hatch’s calculus, however.
“I am still planning, however, to introduce legislation in Nevada because if the federal government could fix all our problems on a speedy time frame, I wouldn’t have much of a job, and so I’m not necessarily holding my breath that it’s going to happen immediately.”
She shouldn’t. Congressman Vern Buchanan of Florida has tried repeatedly to get his clock-locking bill passed, in 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023 and again this year, all without success.
A Senate version – sponsored by then-U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio - passed in 2021, but then failed in the House.
Here in Nevada, La Rue Hatch’s Assembly Bill 81 was co-sponsored by several Democrats and Republicans. It passed the Assembly on a split bipartisan vote of 27-15 in April, but died in the Senate after failing to meet a committee passage deadline.
This year, both La Rue Hatch and state Sen. Dr. Robin Titus have introduced bills to do away with the clock change.
“We all know anybody that has kids or has animals knows they do not change just because we’ve decided the time has changed,” La Rue Hatch said. “They go through this huge disruption for several weeks after we shift forward or back. We know accidents increase, strokes increase, heart attacks increase. We know economic outputs decrease after the clock change. It’s having all these harmful effects on our health and our society and our just daily living, and we’re not seeing any benefits from it.”
In Washington, the House bill passed with Republican Rep. Mark Amodei in support, but Democrats Steven Horsford, Dina Titus and Susie Lee voted no. Titus explained via text that she opposed the change to permanent daylight time because mornings would be darker when kids were walking to school.
But the bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate, according to Nevada senior Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.
“Well, I can tell you, it’s not going anywhere in the Senate, so there’s no need to be concerned about it,” she said. “Because as we are moving through the calendar year in the Senate, I’m hearing there’s bipartisan opposition to that piece of legislation, so it’s really not going to go anywhere, from what I’m hearing.”
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