Tomorrow we will be turning our clocks forward yet again for the start of 2020’s Daylight Savings Time.
This annual tradition started in 1918 to help out farmers, but in today’s globally-connected world, the time change now costs businesses millions each year and has become little more than an annoyance to most citizens.
Last year, North Carolina came painfully close to passing a bill that would have removed the time change and made DST permanent all year.
House Bill 350, moved through the North Carolina House quickly last March, and it passed the full House in April. The full NC Senate then approved a first reading and referred it to the Senate Rules Committee on April 17. That is where it was stalled and has remained to this date.
There is currently talk of restarting the bill in the Senate, or writing a new bill entirely to make DST permanent in North Carolina.
Lawmakers from several neighboring states have also filed similar bills, including Tennessee, South Carolina, and Florida, and a separate time permanence measure was introduced last year to the US Congress by Senator Marco Rubio.
President Trump has even stated that he would support making DST permanent nationwide.
Now it’s only a matter of time.