Daylight saving time remains on despite Congressional push

A bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent stalled in the Senate, meaning clocks will still change this weekend. — This weekend, we will once again move our clocks back an hour as daylight saving time ends.

There is a push in Congress that would make it so we wouldn’t fall back.

News Center 7’s Cody Butler found that people don’t like the change, but it’s a debate that feels nearly as old as time.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

TRENDING STORIES:

Should we be changing our clocks twice a year to observe Daylight Saving Time? Laura Miller from Greenville said, “It’s something that I’m very much used to because I’ve done it my whole life.”

Miller works at Michael’s Fine Clocks in Greenville. She said she can always tell when time changes.

“We do get customers who come in and have us change their clocks for them,” Miller said.

One well-known argument supporting Daylight Saving Time is that farmers have more time in the fields.

Rep. Rodney Creech, R, West Alexandria, said, “We can light up a field like this. It looks like daytime around us. That’s how good the technology is today with LED lights.”

The U.S. House passed a bill that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent.

Stanley Schwartz, Cedarville University History Professor, said, “This is the closest that we’ve ever been.”

Schwartz said permanent Daylight Saving Time has been done twice, but it didn’t last long.

“When we experimented with permanent Daylight Saving Time in the 70s, people didn’t really enjoy the extra dark mornings during the wintertime,” Schwartz said.

Creech said, “I think permanent Daylight Saving Time makes the most sense for Ohioans. We’re getting an extra hour of daylight at the end of every day.”

Creech has led the effort to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.

“What we found out is this is probably one of the most controversial topics sometimes at the statehouse,” Creech Said.

The resolution didn’t pass.

Save Standard Time’s Jay Pea urged lawmakers to vote against it.

“If we just defined time to be whatever we wanted to, then that would become meaningless,” Pea said.

He told News Center 7 that’s because there are health benefits to having the sun up earlier.

“You need that morning light to stimulate cortisol, to wake you up, to feel alert so you can drive safely so you can perform in the workplace, or your children can perform well in school,” Pea said.

Storm Center 7 Chief Meteorologist Austin Chaney said, “If we look at the earliest, the sunset would be in Dayton with permanent DST would be 6:12 p.m. The trade-off would be the added darkness in the morning. The latest sunrise we would see would be 8:58 a.m.”

“We really need that morning sunlight that standard time provides. Permanent standard time is the better way to ditch the switch,” Pea said.

States can opt out of observing Daylight Saving Time without Congress, staying on Standard Time year-round. Arizona and Hawaii are the only states that do.

Creech said that could be an option in the end.

“What I hear Ohioans say is, we just don’t want to change the clock. We don’t care if it’s permanent standard. We don’t care if it’s permanent Daylight Saving Time. We just are tired of changing clocks,” Creech said.

Miller said she has a preference, “I would rather it be to where it’s lighter later so we can get the most out of our days.”

We will still have to change our clocks this weekend because the bill stalled in the U.S. Senate. For this to go forward, it would have to start the process all over.

The National Conference of State Legislatures said 19 states have laws that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent once Congress allows it.

[SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]