A bill to make daylight savings time the permanent time in Iowa advanced through an Iowa House subcommittee on Tuesday. House File 498 drew some criticism but also received praise from lobbyists and lawmakers.
Any bill that makes daylight savings time the permanent time would have to be approved by the federal government, however. If Iowa wanted to make standard time permanent, it would not need federal approval.
Leslie Carpenter, who represented Iowa Mental Health Advocacy, said she is in favor of the bill as an advocate for individuals with serious mental illness. Carpenter would prefer daylight savings time being permanent, but ultimately she said permanent standard time would be better than switching twice a year.
Studies have shown, she said, that children are hurt in the early morning immediately after the time change with it being darker in the morning, but those incidents take place in a “very short window.”
“In the long run, I think once we adjusted ourselves to going with daylight savings time year-round those problems could be mitigated,” she said.
Other people with mental illness may sleep in later due to their medications. And some are more productive in daylight as nighttime produces more voices and hallucinations.
“More daylight while they’re awake is really helpful,” she said.
Craig Patterson spoke in support of putting an end to changing clocks in Iowa. He said it doesn’t matter whether Iowa goes to daylight savings time or standard time.
Patterson grew up in Arizona where they didn’t change the clocks. He acknowledged it makes sense to require a certain number of neighboring states also adopt a change before Iowa would take the plunge.
Brad Epperly with the Iowa Broadcasters Association said the group is against the bill due to concerns of uniformity. Programming for border communities would be difficult.
The Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce and Iowa Chamber Alliance registered undecided on the bill.
Epperly said he would like to see similar language to that of the Senate version, which requires something like two-thirds or three-fourths of adjacent states to make a change in order for it to be triggered into effect.
Republican State Rep. Jacob Bossman, who chaired the subcommittee, noted that Pierre, SD has two different time zones and asked how broadcasters do it there. Epperly acknowledged it can be done — similar to Indiana being split and a corner of Tennessee, but it comes with complications.
“It’s not undoable,” Epperly said. “People find a way. But uniformity would be better.”
Republican State Rep. Mike Sexton voiced support for the idea, pointing out the ability for the state to move to standard time without federal approval.
Democrat State Rep. Heather Matson said she appreciates the desire not to change the clocks but noted her concern with the current bill requiring the federal government to approve a chance to daylight savings time.
“That was a big part of my hesitation last year as well,” she said. “If we had a bill in front of us focused on standard time that doesn’t require federal government approval, I might be thinking about this a little bit differently.”
Matson said she’s open to having the conversation if others are willing to look at it a bit differently. Matson declined to sign off in support because she wants to hear more of a “robust conversation” on the bill.
Bossman concluded by noting when his daughters were younger time changes were very difficult.
“I think it threw them off for a couple months,” he said.
He said it doesn’t just impact children but can also affect adults and people with special needs. Bossman said he appreciated the focus on those challenges and added lawmakers would do what they could to mitigate them.
The bill now moves to the full House State Government Committee.
I’m all for keeping Standard Time permanent. Iowa needs to be a leader in this endeavor. Why do we need to wait for the Federal Government or other states to wake up to this stupid changing of the clock twice a year!!!
And yes we do not gain or lose a hour of daylight when the time changes.