America already made daylight saving time permanent once. In December 1973, 79% of Americans supported it and Nixon signed it into law. By February 1974, eight weeks into the experiment, support had collapsed to 42%. The policy never changed. Winter arrived.
Sunrise in Washington DC came at 8:27am. Kids left for school in total darkness, carrying flashlights and wearing reflective tape. When Congress moved to repeal, members cited the deaths of eight Florida schoolchildren in the first weeks of the change.
The energy case collapsed too. The whole point was the oil embargo, and the Department of Transportation concluded the fuel savings were too small to matter. Ten months after signing it, Congress repealed it and Ford put the country back on standard time.
There's a mechanism that makes this cycle repeat: permanent DST is only ever voted on when the sun is up. Polls run in the abstract, votes happen in warm months, and the benefit, a free hour of evening light, is easy to imagine year-round. The cost is concentrated in about 10 weeks of dark winter mornings and only becomes real after implementation. So the policy polls beautifully right up until January.
Today's vote happened in July. The 1974 law passed in December, right before the exact winter that killed it. If this clears the Senate, the first real test arrives in January 2027, when sunrise in Indianapolis comes after 9am.
Sleep researchers have watched this loop for 50 years, which is why the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the AMA, and the National Sleep Foundation all back the opposite reform, permanent standard time. Congress just picked the one version of clock reform America has already tried, hated, and repealed.
@ScottFriedman3@FIFAWorldCup In looking some of the projected matchups it’s in all the secondary sellers best interest to follow your advice Scott. An endless wave of heartbroken fans complaining about their unfilled orders will devastate the whole secondary industry.
@ClayTravis All the crazy lines seem to be before 9 am because of the # of early flights and the amount of people that panic and go crazy early compounding the problem. I’ve always had good luck with the TSA app or just googling TSA wait times to see how bad it really is.
Final Super Bowl Get-In price predictions?
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@pchristy11 Kudos for him for facing the media when the only one that had a worst day at Hard Rock was the lazy sound guy that didn’t put the cords under the tablecloth.
@RossDellenger@YahooSports Is a raise warranted? Maybe, but why on earth wouldn't you wait till the end of the season? This could end like 99% of all the other Aggie seasons with a horrible collapse. While there are schools interested in him, at some point, ADs have to take a stand.