ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — With another “Fall back” approaching on the calendar, Floridians are asking: why are we still changing the clocks for Daylight Saving Time?
The Sunshine Protection Act was signed into law in Florida in March 2018 by then-Governor Rick Scott, but Congress still has to pass legislation allowing Florida to have year-round Daylight Saving Time.
Senator Marco Rubio’s federal Sunshine Protection Act would eliminate the changing of clocks to standard time for those four months. In sum, if enacted, we would not “fall back” in November and would enjoy a full year of DST, instead of only eight months.
“It’s my hope that Sunday, Nov. 3 will be the last time that we have to do this ridiculous changing of the clocks back and forth,” Rubio said. “It makes absolutely no sense, there’s no justification for it. It has strong support in the House and in the Senate, the White House, the president said he would sign it. I hope we can get this bill passed because I just think it makes all the sense in the world, and this changing of the clocks back and forth makes no sense at all.”
Khalid Saaty, who owns a watch and clock repair shop in Largo, says his business benefits from Daylight Saving Time because people inevitably break their clocks and watches every year when the time comes to “spring ahead” or “fall back”.
“Absolutely. I get a lot, not one or two, I get an average in the next two days or, actually from Sunday I get the phone calls,” said Saaty. “I think, if people vote or choose to change it, I think that’s the beauty about it, we agree and disagree sometimes. But, personally, I think it does not hurt anything, you see the sun stay up longer so might as well just spend another hour out, produce more, exercise more, do something positive in life every day.”
Saaty, who served as an Iraqi translator for U.S. forces in his native Iraq, became a U.S. citizen in 2008 and says even in Iraq, they turn the clocks back in November.
What other people are reading right now:
- Woman shoots, kills home invader in Lithia; 2nd man on the run
- Affidavit: Florida man traded child pornography images for gift cards
- Top 3 things to keep your trick-or-treaters safe
- Parents turn daughter's wheelchair into police car for epic Halloween costume
- Judge: Sheriff can't place 'no trick-or-treat' signs at sex offenders' houses
FREE 10NEWS APP:
