Utah Congressman Maloy Pushes for Permanent Daylight Savings in the State

In case the hundreds of angry social media posts didn’t tip you off, Utah switched to Daylight Savings Time once again on the morning of March 10, causing every resident to lose an hour of sleep in the process.

Despite the disdain for the constant back and forth between times throughout the year, there hasn’t been much headway for a permanent Daylight Savings Time for Utah…until now.

Utah Congressman Celeste Maloy recently reintroduced the possibility of a permanent Daylight Savings Time for Utah in Congress.

I spoke with Maloy about this new development for Utah residents, and she believes this isn’t a decision that should be made on a federal level, but on a state level.

Maloy said, “I reintroduced the Daylight Bill. It’s one that Rob Bishop had introduced and then Chris Stewart introduced it and I worked on it as the Stewart bill. The thing I really like about this bill is that it gives states the option of making Daylight Savings Time permanent, so states get to make the choice.”

The Daylight Bill is different from the Sunshine Bill, which would make every state in the country switch to a permanent Daylight Savings Time. The Daylight Bill would allow for states to decide if they’d like to make the time switch.

Maloy said, “I think my job as a federal representative is to give them that option, so it’s not telling the states what to do, it’s telling states they can make their own choice.”

I asked Congressman Maloy if she’s been negatively impacted by the recent Daylight Savings Time switch on March 10, and she said it certainly affected her scheduled commute to Washington D.C.

Maloy said, “On the days that I fly to Washington D.C. for work, I get up really early in the morning, and that was a lot harder to do yesterday [March 10]. Losing those hours impacts people, and I’ve seen studies that show kids have more behavioral problems in school right after we change our clocks. There are more traffic accidents right after we change our clocks. Crime goes up right after we change our clocks.”

Maloy said residents don’t like having their routine change for such a strange reason, and it can disrupt their rhythm. Only time will tell if the bill will tread new ground in the coming weeks, but for now, everyone will just need to live without that extra hour.