Missouri lawmakers vote to make daylight savings permanent

Tired of changing the clock twice a year, Missouri house has proposed a bill that would make daylight savings time the new standard time.

If the bill survives future procedural votes and passes through the state senate—and if the other conditions are met, see below—the state would never return to “standard” time.

As first reported by St. Louis Public Radio, the bill got preliminary approval on Wednesday.

The effort is part of a push for a New Standard Time Pact. The way the bill is written, it would take effect if three bordering states switch to permanent daylight savings—Missouri borders eight states, so it could go into effect with Kentucky, Tennessee and Oklahoma making the switch, even if Kansas and Illinois didn’t.

That could potentially lead to Kansas being in a different time zone than Missouri half the year, leading to all sorts of hilarity here. And, of course, the same could be true of East St. Louis.

Not so long ago, the common thinking was that daylight savings was designed for farmers and no longer works, since farmers will get up no matter what the clock says. But thinking has evolved as thought leaders point out it’s actually standard time you hate, and that daylight savings time is good. Seemingly, the fact that your phone and anything else connected to the internet now updates automatically makes people even angrier about having to switch their clock on the stove.

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