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Pennsylvania lawmakers are still fighting over daylight saving time, a squabble that has hit plenty of other statehouses as well.

Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Lehigh/Berks, is the latest to reintroduce legislation to place the state permanently on daylight saving time and end the ritual of “springing forward and falling back.”

House Bill 335 is written to amend the act of April 13, 1887 (P.L.21, No.18), titled “an act for the establishment of a uniform standard of time throughout the Commonwealth,” by observing daylight saving time yeararound if authorized by the Congress of the United States.

Mr. Mackenzie said in a memorandum that changing clocks adds unnecessary stress to the lives of Pennsylvanians.

“The 1966 Uniform Time Act brought some order to the country’s clocks by creating a uniform standard of time and creating several time zones,” the memorandum notes. “The Act allows a state to become exempt from DST but does not allow permanent DST unless certain conditions are met. My legislation will allow Pennsylvania to follow permanent DST if the Congress of the United States permits states to do so.”

Mr. Mackenzie said his bill is modeled off a Florida law, but other state lawmakers are debating whether the change should be permanent. Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas have also debated or passed similar legislation.

There have been seven previous co-sponsors on Pennsylvania’s legislation, and it’s not the first time the issue has been addressed in the commonwealth.

During the 2019-20 regular session, state Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon, argued there are more negative side effects from changing clocks than benefits. He cited research stating that automobile accidents, workplace injuries, heart attacks, strokes, cluster headaches, miscarriages, depression and suicides all increase in the weeks following clock changes.

Some people want the opposite of what these current bills propose and suggest dropping daylight saving time entirely in favor of year-round standard time.

The group Save Standard Time promotes itself as a “nonprofit, nonpartisan, donorfunded, volunteer-run effort to preserve and extend the observation of geographically appropriate standard time.” It says a permanent standard time provides the most benefit to health, safety, schoolchildren, the economy, the environment and liberty.