Have Americans wound up their watches for the last time? The Senate voted unanimously on Tuesday to permanently abandon winter time and make summer time permanent.
• Read also: Time change: one hour less sleep, one hour more sunshine
“Changing the clock is an outdated concept that causes frustration and confusion. It’s just stupid, there’s no other way to put it,” argued Senator Marco Rubio, author of the bill.
In the hemicycle on Tuesday, the elected official from Florida drew up a direct causal link between the time changes and the increase in “heart attacks and car accidents”.
Daylight saving time “literally darkens our lives,” said Sheldon Whitehouse, a state senator from Rhode Island on the east coast, where — with daylight saving time — night falls around from 4:15 p.m. in December.
With daylight saving time, the sun rises… and sets later.
However, the fate of this bill is uncertain: to enter into force, it will now have to be passed in the House and signed into law by Joe Biden – who has the power to veto it. The president has not yet made known his position on this file.
The main idea behind the time change was originally to match hours of activity with hours of sunshine to limit the use of artificial lighting.
But its detractors denounce the negative effects on biological rhythms, especially in children.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the abandonment of winter time is also in the pipeline: the European Commission had proposed in September 2018 to abolish it… in 2019. But the European Parliament voted in March 2019 to postpone it to 2021 Since then, the Covid-19 crisis has been there, and the file is pending.