Stop the clock swap? SC lawmakers to try to end daylight savings time practice
South Carolina may stop changing the clocks for daylight savings time if state lawmakers pass a bill filed in the House last week.
The bill, which was sponsored by S.C. Rep. Bill Chumley, R-Spartanburg, would make South Carolina the third state to not set clocks forward an hour in the spring and then back against an hour in the fall due to daylight savings time, following Hawaii and Arizona.
Along with those states, several U.S. territories like American Samoa, Guam and Puerto Rico also do not observe the tradition, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
If the bill were to pass in early 2021, South Carolina would change the clocks one last time on the second Sunday of March 2021 at 2:00 a.m. After that, the clocks would permanently stay the same.
Lawmakers have two years to pass the bill in both the House and the Senate and send the bill to the governor’s desk. Otherwise, it will have to be refiled and start the process from the beginning.
Palmetto State lawmakers have made moves before to get rid of the rituals that come with daylight savings time. In January, lawmakers passed a bill that would stop the clock swap if Congress were to pass a similar bill in the future. The bill, which passed the House with no debate, was signed into law by S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster.
Several states passed legislation in recent years with the same congressional caveat as South Carolina: Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Utah, Wyoming, Arkansas, Delaware, Maine, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington and Florida.
Lawmakers in both the U.S. House and Senate considered dueling bills this year that would make the time during the period of daylight savings time, usually observed from March to November, permanent. Neither bill made much progress as Congress saw its least productive year in decades, according to an analysis from public affairs software firm Quorum.
