Texas legislators say daylight saving time should remain year-round, want voters to decide

On the eve of daylight saving time, two Texas legislators say they want voters to decide whether to end the time change and permanently spring clocks forward across the state.

“This is the perfect point of populism, it’s let people vote on their own time,” state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, told. “The lion’s share majority, way up there, would want one time.”

Bettencourt filed legislation Friday, SJR 86, that would put the decision on the November ballot, allowing voters to decide for or against a “constitutional amendment requiring this state to observe daylight saving time year-round.”

State Rep. Mike Schofield, R-Katy, filed a companion bill — HJR 22 — in November, and it was referred to the State Affairs Committee on Feb. 28.

“Texans are tired of having to change their clocks and lose an hour’s sleep for no reason,” Schofield said in a written statement. “People would like to get home from work and play with their kids without it being dark half the time. There’s no reason not to fix this.”

Only Arizona and Hawaii keep one time throughout the year; both of those states, with the exception of the Navajo Nation in Arizona, remain on standard time. A number of states have enacted laws to permanently switch to daylight saving time as soon as it’s possible.

Bettencourt said if the measure is eventually approved by voters, the decision to permanently keep the time change depends on Congress.

Last year, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill known as the Sunshine Protection Act to make daylight saving time permanent year-round, but it died in the House. The legislation was reintroduced this year by a bipartisan group of senators including Florida Republican Marco Rubio.

“We can’t get to DST unless Congress actually passes the Rubio bill or something like it,” Bettencourt said.

The debate over what time we all set on our clocks has embroiled lawmakers for decades. In the Texas Legislature, lawmakers debated over the issue in 2019, with a House-approved plan to let voters permanently pick daylight saving time or standard time dying.

In 2019 and 2021, Bettencourt authored bills that would let voters decide on the opposite of this year’s bill — ditching daylight saving time and keeping standard time. Federal law currently does not allow for a shift to saving time, only to remain on standard time.

But the passing of the federal Sunshine Protection Act would make switching to daylight saving time possible. Bettencourt said he wants to put some “positive pressure” from Texas on the federal bill.

Bettencourt said after looking at polling in Texas, he believes the daylight saving time bill is about three times as popular as the bills in favor of standard time.

Rubio and others have said the majority of Americans want to stop switching their clocks back and forth for daylight saving time — a ritual Rubio called “stupidity” — and that there are plenty of reasons to stay on daylight saving time year-round.

“The benefits of daylight saving time have also been accounted for in the research,” Rubio said. “For example, reduced crime as there’s light later in the day. We’ve seen decreases in child obesity. A decrease in seasonal depression that many feel during standard time.”

The history of daylight saving time in the U.S. dates back to the Standard Time Bill that President Woodrow Wilson signed into law in 1918.

Since 2007, daylight saving time has started each year at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and lasted eight months, ending on the first Sunday in November.

Research on whether the time change saves energy has been inconclusive at best, with some even finding that extending the use of daylight hours encourages people to use more air conditioning and heating.

“When you think of hot-button public policy issues, what usually comes to mind are things such as property tax relief and school finance and pension reform,” Bettencourt said in a news release announcing his bill. “However, the issue of Daylight Saving Time has roused passions on both sides of the debate for over 100 years.”

Bettencourt said he’s in favor of having one time throughout the year, and in his statement said his bill will allow Texas voters to “once and for all” voice their opinion on the matter.