Senator sees wide support for Daylight Saving Time bill
By Jan Schultz
High Plains News
Daylight Saving Time returns March 12, and there is a bill in the Nebraska Legislature to make it permanent.
While he’s uncertain it will get to a final vote this session, Albion State Sen. Tom Briese said there is strong support for his LB 143 that would make DST year-round in Nebraska.
LB 143 passed out of committee last month on an 8-0 vote, and now waits on General File. Briese has 23 co-sponsors to his bill.
There are a lot of contingencies that have to happen for LB 143 to get to the finish line, however.
“We have a lot going on here right now, and it’s been difficult getting to our priority bills,” Briese said this week from his Lincoln office.
“Much good legislation won’t get to the floor this year.”
One of the major efforts now slowing the process is Omaha Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh’s filibuster trying to block LB 574, legislation that would make gender-affirming care illegal for transgender youths under age 19.
Other big pieces of legislation on school aid, prisons and abortion could eat up valuation time, too.
LB 143 also relies on federal legislation to first allow states to institute year-round DST.Adoption of similar legislation in three adjoining states to Nebraska must also be on the books.
Wyoming and Colorado have already passed similar bills, and legislation has been introduced this year to do so in Iowa and Kansas, said Briese’s legislative aide Edward Boone.
Nationally, 21 states have passed legislation making DST permanent, Boone added.
Briese said there are many reasons to quit changing clocks twice a year.
“Nebraskans are tired of changing clocks,” Briese said.
“You can also make a substantial argument on the economic benefits of it. An extra hour in the evening enhances economic activity,” he said.
He noted a study that centered on the Phoenix area, which does not change clocks during the year, and documented increased economic activity.
“It’s not conclusive, but a fair argument can be made,” Briese said.
Support for his bill has been strong, he said. Polls have shown a vast majority of citizens want to quit changing clocks and a majority want DST to be year-round.
“I’ve half jokingly said it’s the most popular bill I’ve ever introduced,” he said.
There has been some opposition to LB 143, Briese and his aide acknowledged.
Briese said some have approached him with concerns that, in the morning, schoolchildren will be going to school in the dark for a longer period of time with year-round DST.
“I’ve maintained that if a district determines that’s problematic, then they can push back their start times,” Briese said.
The Nebraska Broadcasters Association has also gone on record against LB 143 because some stations’ media markets cross state lines, and programs may not sync with commute times.
That, too, would depend on what federal legislation, if it is passed, allows states to do.
Legislation on the federal level making DST permanent passed in the U.S. Senate in 2022, but not the House. Since this year marks a new Congress, new federal legislation has to be introduced.
Boone believes there is new federal bipartisan legislation that’s in the works, but like in Nebraska, other issues may take precedence.
Briese sponsored a similar DST bill in 2021 that received Speaker priority but didn’t get to Final Reading. It carried over to last year, but again, legislators ran out of time.
The senator also thinks this year’s LB 143 may have to wait again. Since 2023 is the first year of the biennium, bills will carry over to 2024.
“There’s substantial opportunity to get it to the floor next year,” he said.
He felt confident the body will get other “substantial items” onto the floor in 2023.