Bill Text: CA AJR33 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Daylight saving time.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-03-06 - From printer. [AJR33 Detail]
Download: California-2019-AJR33-Introduced.html
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Joint Resolution
No. 33
| Introduced by Assembly Members Chu and Gonzalez (Coauthor: Assembly Member Arambula) |
March 05, 2020 |
Relative to daylight saving time.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AJR 33, as introduced, Chu.
Daylight saving time.
This measure would urge Congress and the President to enact legislation that would allow a state to adopt daylight saving time year-round.
Digest Key
Fiscal Committee: NOBill Text
WHEREAS, In the November 6, 2018, general election, California voters passed Proposition 7, allowing the Legislature by a two-thirds vote to change the dates and times of the daylight saving time period if the change is consistent with federal law, and, if federal law authorizes California to provide for the year-round application of daylight saving time, Proposition 7 allows the Legislature to provide for that application by a two-thirds vote; and
WHEREAS, The federal Uniform Time Act of 1966 allows states to decline application of daylight saving time and provides states with the option of practicing standard time year-round, but does not allow states to practice daylight saving time year-round; and
WHEREAS, A number of studies have shown the numerous adverse health, safety, and economic effects of switching our clocks twice a year, including a 2014 study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology that found a 34-percent increase in admissions for acute myocardial infarction on the Monday following the spring time change; and
WHEREAS, A 2001 study published in Sleep Medicine that looked at data from 21 years of fatal automobile accidents in the United States found there was a significant increase in the average number of fatal automobile accidents on the Monday immediately following the spring shift to daylight saving time and a significant increase in the average number of fatal automobile accidents on the Sunday of the fall shift from daylight saving time; and
WHEREAS, A 2009 study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that miners working in the United States from 1983 to 2006, inclusive, experienced a 5.7-percent increase in the number of injuries on the day that the clocks are set forward one hour and a 67.6-percent increase in days of work lost because of these injuries, representing a considerable increase in injury severity on that day; and
WHEREAS, Research shows numerous health, safety, and economic benefits to daylight saving time, including a 2015 paper in The Review of Economics and Statistics finding that when daylight saving time begins in the spring, robbery rates for the entire day fall an average of 7 percent, with a much larger 27-percent drop during the evening hour that gained more sunlight, and a 2014 study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity that found that longer evening daylight was independently associated with an increase in daily physical activity; and
WHEREAS, A 2017 article in the Journal of Environmental Psychology analyzing data extracted for two-week periods before and after 10 clock-change dates between autumn 2011 and spring 2016 in the County of Arlington in Virginia found daylight conditions resulted in a 62-percent increase in the number of people walking and a 38-percent increase in the number of people cycling, compared with after-dark conditions; and
WHEREAS, A 2016 analysis by the JPMorgan Chase Institute comparing daily card spending in the City of Los Angeles, which observes daylight saving time, against daily card spending in the City of Phoenix, which does not observe daylight saving time, found a 3.5-percent decline in spending in the City of Los Angeles relative to spending in the City of Phoenix in the 30 days after daylight saving time ends; and
WHEREAS, A number of states, including Florida, Maine, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington, passed legislation setting their states on permanent daylight saving time pending federal authorization. Oregon’s legislation is contingent on California and Washington shifting to permanent daylight saving time. Over 40 states have considered legislation related to the practice in the last five years and 14 states introduced bills to go to permanent daylight saving time in 2019; and
WHEREAS, Three related bills have been introduced in Congress: one authorizing Florida to go on daylight saving time year-round, one placing the country on daylight saving time year-round, and one allowing states to observe daylight saving time all year at their discretion; and
WHEREAS, British Columbia premier John Horgan announced the province would be introducing legislation to go on permanent daylight saving time in response to a public consultation showing 93 percent of British Columbians support eliminating the practice of switching their clocks. The premier has indicated he would like to work with California, Washington, and Oregon to make the change in lockstep; and
WHEREAS, The European Union is also considering terminating the practice of switching their clocks as soon as 2021 after a public consultation showed constituents were concerned about the negative effects; and
WHEREAS, Since 2000, 14 countries have abolished the practice of switching their clocks twice a year; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature respectfully urges the United States Congress and the President of the United States to enact legislation that would allow a state to adopt daylight saving time year-round; and be it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.
