NASHVILLE, Tenn. – State Rep. Chris Todd, R-Madison County, has proposed legislation to end semiannual time changes in Tennessee.
House Bill 1300 would eliminate daylight saving time in the Volunteer State and require the observance of standard time year-round.
“For my entire time in the legislature, voters have been demanding we stop changing our clocks. This outdated and confusing practice serves no real purpose today, and we are going to eliminate it once and for all in our state,” said Todd. “Keeping standard time year-round will provide consistency, improve health and productivity, and better align our schedules with natural daylight.”
Daylight saving time was implemented on March 31, 1918, shortly after President Woodrow Wilson signed the Standard Time Act into law. Proponents argued that rolling clocks back an hour would save energy and allow people to take advantage of daylight hours, according to the Library of Congress.
A year later, the U.S. Congress repealed daylight saving time, overriding President Wilson’s veto and allowing states to choose to continue observance. After being temporarily reinstated between 1942 and 1945, with significant opposition from the agricultural industry, the Uniform Time Act of 1966 established a standardized time system for the nation.
Daylight saving time has several adverse effects on Americans, including increased health risks like heart attacks and strokes, according to a report from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. It can also negatively impact sleep patterns by disrupting the circadian rhythm, making it more difficult to fall asleep.
While states cannot choose to observe permanent daylight saving time, they can exempt themselves, as House Bill 1300 seeks to do.
In 2019, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a trigger law to observe daylight saving time year-round if the U.S. Congress passed a measure giving states that ability, but no federal action has been taken. Currently, only Hawaii and Arizona, except the Navajo Nation, do not observe daylight saving time.
If passed by the General Assembly and signed into law, House Bill 1300 would be implemented beginning March 14, 2027.
House Bill 1300 advanced out of the Public Service Committee on March 11 and now heads to the State and Local Government Committee.
State Rep. Chris Todd represents District 73 in the Tennessee House of Representatives, which includes most of Madison County.
