It’s time for twice a year clock changes to end

The beginning of Daylight Savings Time is just around the corner, with a start date on Sunday, March 12. After long winters like  we’ve experienced in 2022-23, DST is always welcome when clocks move forward an hour, moving more daylight to the evenings.
    Wouldn’t it be nice not to change the clocks back in the fall? With no changes federally yet to mandate that, Standard Time will return later in the year on Nov. 5, but it’s time for a permanent DST.
        In Congress last year, the Sunshine Protection Act, filed by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, would have made Daylight Savings Time permanent. While it passed the Senate by unanimous consent, the 117th Congress ended without a House of Representatives vote, which would have then required a signature from President Biden.
            Evidently, the proposal now needs to be reintroduced. That looks unlikely. They have a number of more important issues before them. Issues like inflation, the border, escalation tensions with Russia. I could list many more.
    Daylight Savings Time became federal law in 1966, but it’s been tweaked over the years. Initially, it started the last Sunday of April through the last Sunday in October. It was altered to its present form in 2007, and now starts the second Sunday in March, continuing until the first Sunday in November.
    A bill was proposed in last year’s Nebraska Unicameral that would have implemented DST year-round, once the federal government allowed states to do so and at least two neighboring states adopted similar year-round legislation, but it didn’t make it to the floor.
    Legislators who’ve support a permanent Daylight Savings Time have cited numerous studies on the increased heart attacks, strokes, fatal car accidents and lost economic activity after the time changes each year. I hate the jet lag feeling that comes with it. The downside is the darker mornings during commutes to work and school.  
    It makes sense to quit changing the clocks forward and backward every year. Let’s hope our federal representatives can fit some action in on establishing permanent DST this year.