[tz] "Washington House OKs step toward year-round daylight saving"

[Paul Eggert]

I've stopped keeping track of all the proposed US legislation to end daylight 
saving time. Bills have been introduced or passed in states ranging from Alaska 
<https://www.abc27.com/news/local/state-lawmaker-proposes-to-eliminate-daylight-saving-time/1829835736> 
to Wyoming 
<https://www.wyodaily.com/story/2019/02/14/news/daylight-saving-time-bill-dies/8596.html>. 
None of the bills that have become law have changed civil timekeeping in any 
way, and I suspect that this is by design.

Most Americans want to stop fiddling with the clocks twice a year. Some want to 
move one timezone east (so-called "permanent DST"), while others want to stay on 
permanent standard time. Although the former typically outnumber the latter, any 
change will be controversial and state legislators prefer doing nothing to 
dealing with the blowback that would come from any real change. I suspect this 
is why many legislators seem to be happy to do what the Washington House has 
done, which is to pass a bill that doesn't really do anything, and blame the 
problem on Washington.