LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Daylight saving time (DST) returns this Sunday, and that means we once again change the clocks by springing forward.
This is one of the most dreaded days of the year for many people, and there have been multiple attempts over the decades to try and repeal daylight saving time or make it permanent.
How would time look if standard time was adopted all year? To put it simply, all of our sunrises and sunsets would happen an hour earlier than they currently do.
It's important to note that the length of day doesn't change when DST is in effect; it's only an arbitrary change in the sunrise and sunset time. However, our days do get longer in the warmer months regardless of what time it is.
Daylight Saving Time laws in Kentucky and Indiana
What about national legislation? There was an attempt in 2022 when Florida Senator Marco Rubio introduced the Sunshine Protection Act to make DST permanent all year long. It passed the Senate, but never came for a vote in the House of Representatives.
Did you know that daylight saving time was actually adopted permanently in the 70s? In 1974 the United States adopted DST year-round. It went so poorly that they reverted to back to changing the clocks twice a year in October of that same year.
The problem? School children. In the winter, the sunrise would often be after 8:30 in the morning for many parts of the country, resulting in children walking to school in the dark, and even carrying flashlights with them to see.
There's new legislation in Kentucky to repeal DST and make standard time the go-to time in Kentucky. Kentucky Rep. Steven Doan (R-District 69) is looking to end that cycle of springing forward.
The time change has a long history in the United States. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 mandates the use of daylight saving time throughout the country. It allows states, however, to opt out, exempting themselves from the practice and stay on standard time year-round, but it doesn't allow states to permanently establish daylight saving time.
This isn't the first time Kentucky has tried to pick a time and stay with it.
The current legislation introduced by Doan is House Bill 674, filed in February, would make Kentucky exempt from DST and would instead the standard time of the United States. “Standard time” is the "real" time when DST is not in use.
Currently, HB 674 has been assigned to the Committee on Committees.
Doan's bill is likely going to have a tough time in the legislature as this isn’t the first attempt at ending DST in Kentucky. In fact, there were three bills filed in 2020 alone to end the time change, but all of them failed.
As for Indiana, a bill exempting Indiana from daylight saving time was introduced into the assembly for the 2024 session according to the Indiana General Assembly.
It's unlikely we'll see any significant changes to changing our clocks in Kentucky or Indiana anytime soon, and it will likely take an act of Congress.
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