Congress can’t even decide what time it is

Congress has a unique ability to make the simplest of things unnecessarily difficult. Take, for example, the issue of daylight saving time. In just about five weeks, daylight saving time will begin, giving us an extra hour of sunlight in the evening. There has been talk for years of making daylight saving time permanent, rather than forcing us to change our clocks twice each year. Three separate bills were introduced in Congress in 2023, including one called The Sunshine Protection Act, which would adopt daylight saving time year round. Another would allow states to keep daylight saving time. While the bills were written and properly introduced, they were sent to committee, where they have been languishing since March. There is no schedule for the bills to be debated or given a public hearing, so they won’t become law anytime soon, certainly not before March 10 when daylight saving begins. It looks like we will be springing ahead yet again. Most people favor adopting daylight saving year round, and this effort has bipartisan support. They should finally put the bill up for a vote. This is hardly the most important issue facing Congress, but it shouldn’t take this long for them to decide what time it is.