Permanent DST in the United States
The "Sunshine Protection Act" has passed the US Senate with unanimous consent. It now moves on to the House. My reading of the text is that this would mandate permanent DST for the 48 states that currently observe it, with Arizona (sans the Navajo Nation) and Hawaii able to choose. Notably there is no clause that delays implementation, so it looks like it would take effect immediately. This could be problematic if the bill becomes law near or after the November clock change. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/623/text Jacob Pratt
According to cnet https://www.cnet.com/culture/senate-unanimously-passes-bill-to-make-daylight... [https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/91017df947d34aa73baa0c3e99502832a2e79300/2022/03/15/85bb9b63-49b5-4b0f-8454-6d735365f33b/gettyimages-1225769607.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=630&width=1200]<https://www.cnet.com/culture/senate-unanimously-passes-bill-to-make-daylight-saving-time-permanent/> Senate Unanimously Passes Bill to Make Daylight Saving Time Permanent - CNET<https://www.cnet.com/culture/senate-unanimously-passes-bill-to-make-daylight...> Springing forward and falling back could be a thing of the past. Anna Blazhuk/Getty Images The US Senate has unanimously passed a bill to make daylight saving time permanent across the nation. www.cnet.com It would not take effect until November 2023. ________________________________ From: tz <tz-bounces@iana.org> on behalf of Jacob Pratt via tz <tz@iana.org> Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2022 2:05 PM To: Time zone mailing list <tz@iana.org> Subject: [tz] Permanent DST in the United States This email originated from outside Innovative Systems. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. The "Sunshine Protection Act" has passed the US Senate with unanimous consent. It now moves on to the House. My reading of the text is that this would mandate permanent DST for the 48 states that currently observe it, with Arizona (sans the Navajo Nation) and Hawaii able to choose. Notably there is no clause that delays implementation, so it looks like it would take effect immediately. This could be problematic if the bill becomes law near or after the November clock change. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/623/text<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.congress.gov%2Fbill%2F117th-congress%2Fsenate-bill%2F623%2Ftext&data=04%7C01%7Crunet%40innovsys.com%7Caacaa7c9217a4efef72f08da06b6d51e%7C7a48ce45ee974a95ac183390878a179b%7C0%7C0%7C637829679570901766%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=3B244t6qkYs%2FzWcBM%2BwmBFXmt%2BYcufOxvBjHubtDJDA%3D&reserved=0> Jacob Pratt
On 3/15/22 12:05, Jacob Pratt via tz wrote:
there is no clause that delays implementation, so it looks like it would take effect immediately. This could be problematic if the bill becomes law near or after the November clock change.
It would be problematic even if it becomes law this month, as it would effectively change time zone names and abbreviations immediately. For example, the time zone abbreviation in Los Angeles would immediately change from "PDT" to "PST" (though the UTC offset would not change). A *lot* of computer software assumes that timezone abbreviations like "PST" have their longstanding meanings. This software was obviously misguided, but it's out there and changing it will be quite a hassle. I don't envy people who will have the responsibility for cleaning up the resulting mess where "PST" has one meaning for older timestamps and a different meaning for newer ones and existing standards like Internet RFC 5322 continue to say things like "PST is semantically equivalent to -0800".
Good point with regard to the abbreviation. I know some RFCs explicitly assume "PST" is UTC-8. These RFCs, though deprecated, are still required to be followed in new code (I did this not too long ago). With regard to the delayed implementation, it sounds like there was an amendment included. The Congressional website doesn't yet reflect this, but in my experience it takes a day or two for the website to be updated (including for the vote itself). Amendment reference: https://news.yahoo.com/senate-unexpectedly-approves-legislation-abolish-1907... Rubio said, however, that an amendment to the bill would delay its
implementation until November 2023 in order to give the airline and travel industries, which operate on strict timetables, sufficient leeway to prepare for the change.
Jacob Pratt On Tue, Mar 15, 2022 at 4:01 PM Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
On 3/15/22 12:05, Jacob Pratt via tz wrote:
there is no clause that delays implementation, so it looks like it would take effect immediately. This could be problematic if the bill becomes law near or after the November clock change.
It would be problematic even if it becomes law this month, as it would effectively change time zone names and abbreviations immediately. For example, the time zone abbreviation in Los Angeles would immediately change from "PDT" to "PST" (though the UTC offset would not change).
A *lot* of computer software assumes that timezone abbreviations like "PST" have their longstanding meanings. This software was obviously misguided, but it's out there and changing it will be quite a hassle. I don't envy people who will have the responsibility for cleaning up the resulting mess where "PST" has one meaning for older timestamps and a different meaning for newer ones and existing standards like Internet RFC 5322 continue to say things like "PST is semantically equivalent to -0800".
Here's a link to a video of Rubio's comments on the Senate floor for this bill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WS64Q3-emk At 3:56, he discusses the delay to November 2023. Looking forward to seeing that added to the official bill. On Tue, Mar 15, 2022 at 1:05 PM Jacob Pratt via tz <tz@iana.org> wrote:
Good point with regard to the abbreviation. I know some RFCs explicitly assume "PST" is UTC-8. These RFCs, though deprecated, are still required to be followed in new code (I did this not too long ago).
With regard to the delayed implementation, it sounds like there was an amendment included. The Congressional website doesn't yet reflect this, but in my experience it takes a day or two for the website to be updated (including for the vote itself).
Amendment reference: https://news.yahoo.com/senate-unexpectedly-approves-legislation-abolish-1907...
Rubio said, however, that an amendment to the bill would delay its
implementation until November 2023 in order to give the airline and travel industries, which operate on strict timetables, sufficient leeway to prepare for the change.
Jacob Pratt
On Tue, Mar 15, 2022 at 4:01 PM Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
On 3/15/22 12:05, Jacob Pratt via tz wrote:
there is no clause that delays implementation, so it looks like it would take effect immediately. This could be problematic if the bill becomes law near or after the November clock change.
It would be problematic even if it becomes law this month, as it would effectively change time zone names and abbreviations immediately. For example, the time zone abbreviation in Los Angeles would immediately change from "PDT" to "PST" (though the UTC offset would not change).
A *lot* of computer software assumes that timezone abbreviations like "PST" have their longstanding meanings. This software was obviously misguided, but it's out there and changing it will be quite a hassle. I don't envy people who will have the responsibility for cleaning up the resulting mess where "PST" has one meaning for older timestamps and a different meaning for newer ones and existing standards like Internet RFC 5322 continue to say things like "PST is semantically equivalent to -0800".
Just an update, the amended text of the bill as passed by the Seneate includes an effective date of November 5, 2023 in subsection (c). https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/623/text/es Now we'll have to see what the House does.
participants (4)
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Jacob Pratt -
Matt Johnson-Pint -
Paul Eggert -
Rune Torgersen