Change your clocks! You may get to leave them that way forever.

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Florida federal lawmakers want Daylight Saving Time year-round.

Unless you overlooked the time change, clocks in your home should have sprung forward an hour for Daylight Saving Time. Now, a group of Florida lawmakers wants to make sure you never change the time back.

The occasion of a biannual resetting of timepieces offered U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan to push the Sunshine Protection Act on national television.

“Our goal is we spring forward this weekend, we’re not going to have to fall back in the fall if we get our bill passed into law,” he told Today.

The Sarasota Republican sponsored the legislation in the House, along with U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, a Punta Gorda Republican.

For Steube, it’s been a long road toward the light so far. And if the bill does become law, he can legitimately claim he ushered it from the dawn of an idea to the president’s desk.

As a state Senator, he introduced the concept in the Florida Legislature after a suggestion by his barber. His idea ultimately won passage by overwhelming majorities in the state House and Senate.

But in the process, the House did change Steube’s original bill slightly. Lawmakers said they wanted Florida to go to Daylight Saving Time, not standard time, all year long.

Steube was fine with that, but the change does require the approval of Congress. Now, he’s making that case in D.C.

“Switching our clocks twice a year is an unnecessary and outdated practice,” Steube wrote this week on Twitter.

“Last year, the Florida legislature overwhelmingly supported my measure, and now it’s up to Congress to make it happen.”

Steube has since punched at the standard arguments against the bill. Does it help farmers? Not according to Florida agriculture experts, who actually say it hurts business.

“Year-round Daylight Saving Time will improve our health, our economy, and our safety. Let’s make it happen!”

U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott will carry the measure in their own chamber. Rubio made at attempt last year as well. But now he has partners who were involved at the state level. Scott as Florida governor last year signed Steube’s bill into law.

Jacob Ogles

Jacob Ogles has covered politics in Florida since 2000 for regional outlets including SRQ Magazine in Sarasota, The News-Press in Fort Myers and The Daily Commercial in Leesburg. His work has appeared nationally in The Advocate, Wired and other publications. Events like SRQ’s Where The Votes Are workshops made Ogles one of Southwest Florida’s most respected political analysts, and outlets like WWSB ABC 7 and WSRQ Sarasota have featured his insights. He can be reached at [email protected].



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