OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington legislators continue to pursue a fix to springing forward and rolling back the clocks.
Two Washington state senators are trying once again to switch the state to permanent Pacific Standard Time. According to the pre-filed bill sponsored by Sens. Jeff Wilson and Manka Dhingra, the state would still advance clocks by one hour in the spring of 2025, but then would give up the practice for good when we roll back next November.
A body of research has shown that switching between daylight saving time and standard time has negative impacts on public health, including an increase in traffic accidents, greater risks of heart attacks, more frequent workplace injuries and increased suicide rates in the days immediately after, according to the bill text.
The state approved a switch to permanent daylight saving time in 2019, which is the preferred option for many Washingtonians, but that would require approval from Congress. The issue has been brought up many times by Sen. Patty Murray, co-sponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio. The bill, the Sunshine Protection Act, passed unanimously out of the Senate in 2022, but it failed to make it for a full vote in the House.
This new bill would allow the state to opt out of DST without approval from Congress. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 allows states to opt out of daylight saving time completely, which both Arizona and Hawaii have done.
The permanent Pacific Standard Time bill was also filed for consideration in 2024 but failed to make it past committee.