Once again, Washington residents will have to deal with the effects of “springing forward” for Daylight Saving Time this Sunday, despite the state having passed a bill to keep DST in place permanently.
Gov. Jay Inslee signed the bill into law in 2019, but it still hasn’t taken effect.
That’s because federal law allows states to opt into standard time permanently — however, the reverse is not allowed without federal action. The state still needs a federal waiver from Congress or approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
In October 2021, Washington Sen. Patty Murray said she was looking for “alternative paths” to enact the bill. That same year, the U.S. Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act, which would have made DST permanent nationwide, but it was never passed out of the House.
In January 2022, Washington Sen. Jim Honeyford proposed a bill to keep Washington in standard time year-round, but that bill died in committee.
Now, Murray is once again pushing for the Sunshine Protection Act, urging people to call their local lawmakers to encourage them to vote in favor of it in the House and Senate.
“This weekend, once again, families across Washington state and the country are going to lose an hour of sleep for absolutely no reason,” Murray said in a release on Friday. “Any parent who has worked so hard to get a newborn or toddler on a regular sleeping schedule understands the absolute chaos changing our clocks creates. And I don’t know a single person who wants the sun to set at four o’clock in the afternoon during the winter.”
In March 2021, Murray and Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio wrote an op-ed highlighting the need to pass the Sunshine Protection Act.
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