Oops! The US Senate’s unanimous approval of daylight saving time was a comedy of errors
Stephanie Finucane
Tue, March 22, 2022
That adage “Everyone makes mistakes” is all too true.
Here’s one of my recent blunders: I left the “l” out of “public.” In an editorial.
Luckily, a sharp-eyed reader alerted us soon after the editorial was posted and before it made it into print, for which I remain grateful. And humbled.
Still, some mistakes — or “accidents” as they are sometimes called — are beyond comprehension.
For example, when news broke that the U.S. Senate had unanimously approved a bill, aptly called the Sunshine Protection Act, making daylight saving time permanent, we assumed (and by “we” I mean “I”) they knew what they were doing.
As it turns out, some of them did not actually know what they were approving and were shocked when they discovered what they had done.
Call it an accident, or a mistake, or a blunder, or an oversight. Call it whatever you like. By any name, it’s frightening to realize that important public policy decisions can be made so haphazardly.
Here’s a short version of what happened: The legislation sponsored by Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio passed by unanimous consent, without a roll-call vote.
Unanimous consent is often used as a shortcut to bypass procedural rules — such as requiring quorum calls and the full reading of amendments.
Even one objection can sink unanimous consent, but in this case, no one objected when Rubio requested it— apparently because not everyone was aware of what was happening.
Washington Post Columnist Dana Milbank reported that a top Republican on the Commerce Committee — which had been assigned to review the bill but had not approved it — knew what was going on and intended to object, “but decided not to at the last minute because he’s focused on more pressing matters, such as the war in Ukraine.”
“In other words, it’s Vladimir Putin’s fault that our clocks may change,” Milbank wrote.
BuzzFeed reported that some other senators “were not told by their staff that the request was happening.”
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, was one of them.
“It’s literally an issue my staff and I had never discussed, and they made an assumption that I don’t care about daylight saving time,” Coons told BuzzFeed. “And I don’t know if I do! I’ve never taken five minutes to stop and think about it. “
Funny, because I’ll bet a vast majority of the public has spent a lot more than five minutes thinking about it.
So there we have it: A bill that affects the life of each and every American sailed through the Senate without so much as a full hearing or a debate or a roll-call vote, as if it were as routine as declaring June National Dairy Month or designating square dancing as our national folk dance.
Sure, senators are only human — and humans make mistakes — but is this any way to run a country?
We can only hope this snafu will serve as a wake-up call for our illustrious senators.
By the way, this is far from being a done deal. It still has to be heard by the House of Representatives, and that could take months.
Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, says he’s researching the issue.
“I understand that altering or abolishing daylight saving time would have far-reaching implications beyond just changing when California families have to reset their clocks,” he wrote in an email. “I am still seeking more information on the impact the Senate-passed bill could have on our Central Coast communities, and encourage my constituents to reach out to me and share their perspective on this issue.”
So relax. Despite the Senate’s rushed passage, there’s still time to let your representative know if you want to maintain the status quo, or ditch the annual rite of springing forward, only to fall back again and again.
Stephanie Finucane
Tue, March 22, 2022
That adage “Everyone makes mistakes” is all too true.
Here’s one of my recent blunders: I left the “l” out of “public.” In an editorial.
Luckily, a sharp-eyed reader alerted us soon after the editorial was posted and before it made it into print, for which I remain grateful. And humbled.
Still, some mistakes — or “accidents” as they are sometimes called — are beyond comprehension.
For example, when news broke that the U.S. Senate had unanimously approved a bill, aptly called the Sunshine Protection Act, making daylight saving time permanent, we assumed (and by “we” I mean “I”) they knew what they were doing.
As it turns out, some of them did not actually know what they were approving and were shocked when they discovered what they had done.
Call it an accident, or a mistake, or a blunder, or an oversight. Call it whatever you like. By any name, it’s frightening to realize that important public policy decisions can be made so haphazardly.
Here’s a short version of what happened: The legislation sponsored by Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio passed by unanimous consent, without a roll-call vote.
Unanimous consent is often used as a shortcut to bypass procedural rules — such as requiring quorum calls and the full reading of amendments.
Even one objection can sink unanimous consent, but in this case, no one objected when Rubio requested it— apparently because not everyone was aware of what was happening.
Washington Post Columnist Dana Milbank reported that a top Republican on the Commerce Committee — which had been assigned to review the bill but had not approved it — knew what was going on and intended to object, “but decided not to at the last minute because he’s focused on more pressing matters, such as the war in Ukraine.”
“In other words, it’s Vladimir Putin’s fault that our clocks may change,” Milbank wrote.
BuzzFeed reported that some other senators “were not told by their staff that the request was happening.”
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, was one of them.
“It’s literally an issue my staff and I had never discussed, and they made an assumption that I don’t care about daylight saving time,” Coons told BuzzFeed. “And I don’t know if I do! I’ve never taken five minutes to stop and think about it. “
Funny, because I’ll bet a vast majority of the public has spent a lot more than five minutes thinking about it.
So there we have it: A bill that affects the life of each and every American sailed through the Senate without so much as a full hearing or a debate or a roll-call vote, as if it were as routine as declaring June National Dairy Month or designating square dancing as our national folk dance.
Sure, senators are only human — and humans make mistakes — but is this any way to run a country?
We can only hope this snafu will serve as a wake-up call for our illustrious senators.
By the way, this is far from being a done deal. It still has to be heard by the House of Representatives, and that could take months.
Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, says he’s researching the issue.
“I understand that altering or abolishing daylight saving time would have far-reaching implications beyond just changing when California families have to reset their clocks,” he wrote in an email. “I am still seeking more information on the impact the Senate-passed bill could have on our Central Coast communities, and encourage my constituents to reach out to me and share their perspective on this issue.”
So relax. Despite the Senate’s rushed passage, there’s still time to let your representative know if you want to maintain the status quo, or ditch the annual rite of springing forward, only to fall back again and again.
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