Year-Round DST Bill Gets First-Round Unicameral Approval

      Nebraska lawmakers have given 39-4 first-round approval to a bill making Daylight Savings Time permanent in the state – if Congress allows it and 3 neighboring states do it, too.

Wyoming passed a similar bill earlier this year, bringing to 19 the number of states now having such laws.

       Bill sponsor Tom Briese read off a laundry list of reasons to make the switch, essentially moving everyone up one time zone instead of changing twice a year.

Briese handed out copies of articles and studies on the effects of changing clocks back-and-forth ranging from an increase in heart attacks and car accidents to a decrease in consumer spending in the days immediately after a time change.

      Panhandle Senator Steve Erdman opposed making Daylight Savings Time permanent. The Bayard rancher said students in Lincoln would be going to school in the dark many winter mornings, but later made it clear he’s just against DST period.

Erdman added that people who say they needed DST to be able to get in more outdoor recreation such as golf should just adjust their work hours to get off an hour earlier. 

3 thoughts on “Year-Round DST Bill Gets First-Round Unicameral Approval”

  1. I come from a long line of farmers, and I agree with Steve Erdman, but for another reason. Farmers, in case you do not know, work from dawn to dusk. DST might give them a later start in the morning (kinda dark before dawn), but it will definitely give them a later end to their day (harvest can keep them out until after dark, sometimes around 11:00 p.m., in the summer!). As Nebraska is an agricultural state, I hope them awful smart senators think about their farming constituents, figure it out and do right by them! .

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