Jon Lovett has been tweeting, podcasting, and probably yelling out of his window about fixing Daylight Saving Time.
But he doesn’t have a blog, so when people search for “Jon Lovett daylight saving time” they see my post from last year near the top of the results. (I have been getting a ton of traffic directly to that page, and that’s why I looked.)
We both recently used the same map to help make our point. He used it in a tweet, and I used it in a webinar hosted by the National Conference of Sate Legislatures.
We both made the same basic point… Anyone who says they have one solution that will work for every state in every time zone just is not paying attention.
It is something like remarkable how much Jon has pushed this issue forward in the midst of this election, which is a bit overwhelming for nearly everyone. I know it is for me, and I’m not a founder of a really important voting initiative.
He is raising the profile a lot, and I think that will really help. He is also sensible enough to accept help from people he disagrees with a lot, people like Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida who like Jon has been pushing for an end to DST clock changing.
I know he will be OK with that because he just wants to see this thing fixed. If a Republican gets a little credit, fine.
And as I wrote about last year, Jon is really close to having the exact right solution.
What is that?
It is always important to remember that there are two questions:
- Should we #LockTheClock and stop changing into and out of DST?
- What time zone should we lock into?
Jon’s solution at the moment is that we should let states decide both questions.
Well you should know Josh for this reason my official policy position is that we should amend the law not to dictate an outcome but give states an option for permanent daylight saving time along with current options of permanent standard and the switch. https://t.co/PZkVp97GPi
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) October 28, 2020
This is consistent with the (now dead) House Bill, and it makes sense… until you dive into it.
Here are the problems with that approach:
- It would lead to the kind of patchwork of states with different times. This is a legitimate problem, and would bring opposition from the transportation industry. (This is why Congress passed the Uniform Time Act of 1966. They wanted the time to be uniform.)
- Related, it would give the states the easy temptation to change relatively often, leading to even more confusion.
- While it recognizes the reality of states being located on different sides of a time zone, it does not set a method for the states to work together as a region.
That’s why I really want to get through to Jon (maybe after the election) and work with him to advocate the other solution. Last year I called it the European solution, but it turns out even Europe doesn’t have it right.
But it is still the right way to go. Here is the plan:
- Congress says: No more clock changing starting in, say, 2022.
- States have until then to work out which zones they want to be in.
- If they do nothing, they go into Permanent DST.
That is the whole plan, and gives plenty of time for everyone to work everything out, make regional agreements, etc.
The one legitimate downside to this plan before Covid-19 was that it would also force school districts to adjust their schedules. Getting schools to adjust schedules before Covid would have been hard, but I think my son’s school has adjusted its schedule 27 times since September. Before the school bell schedule was etched in granite, now it’s Gumby.
So, Jon, get some sleep, and after the election maybe watch my appearance on the Daily Show, and then one of my legislative testimonies so you know that I am not a kook, and then let’s talk.