By Rita Cook
Correspondent
Texas Metro News
AUSTIN – There were over 300 bills Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law during the 89th Regular Legislative Session.
One bill pertained to a matter many Texans have grumbled about for years.
Daylight Savings Time, “Is it really necessary to change the clocks twice a year,” said Texas resident Kay Wiggs.
House Bill 1393 also known as “Texas Time” authored by Rep. Will Metcalf, a Republican from Conroe will go into effect September 1, 2025. That is if the United States Congress enacts legislation that becomes law that authorizes the State of Texas to observe daylight saving time year-round.
In Washington DC Congress has what is called the Sunshine Protection Act. This act would enable states to adopt DST year-round. However, the Act has been presented five times in the past to no avail.
The changing of the clock began with the Uniform Time Act of 1966. The idea was originally to promote the adoption and observance of a standard system of time in the United States.
Opting out of the time change requires states to stay with “standard time” year-round only. States like Arizona and Hawaii have adhered to the standard time rule to keep the time zone consistent all 12 months.
In Texas, the idea of no more “springing forward” or “falling back” is not a new idea, but it has failed in the Texas House and Senate in the past.
Even so, this year keeping Texas on daylight saving time (DST) year-round was a win in both the House and Senate save for a few dissenters.
Dallas Democratic Sen. Nathan Johnson said, “I would argue that we should not adopt daylight savings time.”
The Democrats who voted against Texas Time included Austin’s Vikki Goodwin, Irving’s Terry Meza, Fort Worth’s Ramon Romero Jr., and Dallas’ Venton Jones and Toni Rose.
The Republicans who said “no” were Reps. Briscoe Cain from Deer Park, Richard Hayes from Hickory Creek, Mitch Little, representing Lewisville, Candy Noble representing Irving and Tom Oliverson from Cypress.
Individuals who voted “present not voting” included Speaker Dustin Burrows a Republican from Lubbock, Daniel Alders, a Republican from Tyler, and Shelly Luther, a Republican from Tom Bean.
For his part in signing “Texas Time” into law Abbott said “Texas is the blueprint for America’s future. In my State of the State Address, I declared that our task this session is to be the guardians of freedom. The laws I signed today fulfill that task and ensure that Texans continue to benefit from the liberties that define our state.”
Since Texas is a large state, the Texas Time bill also indicated the change would apply to “both the portion of this state using central standard time as the official standard time and the portion of this state using mountain standard time as the official standard time.”
The bill also declared the “the standard time in this state shall be referred to as Texas Time.”
There are 18 other states also waiting to hear if their comparably passed legislation will go into effect including Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Alabama, pending the federal decision.
