11/03/2018
FOX’s Chad Pergram discusses Daylight saving time and who you can thank for that extra hour this weekend.
I’m Chad Pergram with the Speaker’s Lobby.
If you want to thank someone for that extra hour this weekend due to the time change, look to Congress.
The temporal convulsions of falling back and springing forward can be traced to the passage of the Calder Act in Congress 100 years ago. The law established the four American continental time zones. Spurred by World War I and efforts to save fuel, Congress initiated “summer” daylight saving time in March 1918.
The time measure proved to be unpopular. Congress prepared another piece of legislation to end daylight saving time. President Woodrow Wilson subsequently vetoed the bill, but both houses of Congress executed a rare, successful override.
It’s constitutionally unclear if President Trump can end birthright citizenship with an executive order, but President Franklin Delano Roosevelt imposed year-round “war time” by executive order in the 1940’s.
Congress implemented year-round daylight saving time for two years to combat oil shocks in the mid-1970’s.
Congress again updated the start of standard time and daylight saving time in 1986. Lawmakers last adjusted the current schedule in a major piece of energy legislation in 2004.
With the Speaker’s Lobby, Chad Pergram, FOX News.
Follow Chad Pergram on Twitter: @ChadPergram
