When more than 40 people agreed with his Facebook status complaining about having to change his clocks for daylight saving time, state Sen. Greg Brophy decided to do something about it.
A Senate committee today will consider Brophy’s Senate Bill 22, which would make daylight saving time the year-round time in Colorado, abandoning the rest of the Mountain Standard Time zone and possibly butting up against federal law.
“It’s just ridiculous,” Brophy, R-Wray, said of the need to change clocks twice a year.
The bill takes an opposite approach to a previously defeated House bill that would have abolished daylight saving time.
In 1966, Coloradans voted to use daylight saving time in the late spring, summer and early fall. Since then, Congress has gradually extended daylight saving time, moving the start date into March and pushing the end date into November.
Brophy said there are many small effects created by the time changes, but the main inspiration for SB 22 is convenience.
Although Brophy admits that the bill’s chances of passing committee are “about the same” as the defeated House bill’s, he insists it is a serious attempt to make daylight saving time permanent.
Brophy acknowledged in December that his bill might conflict with federal law. A 1966 U.S. congressional act allows states to opt out of daylight saving time, as Arizona and Hawaii have done, but it does not say states can adopt it permanently.
Lawmakers raised that concern during discussion of a very similar 1999 bill that died in committee. Brophy said last year the issue could be one of states’ rights and that the U.S. government might not have the right to tell Colorado what time policies to adopt.
Gov. John Hickenlooper has not weighed in on the issue but will consider it, according to a representative from his office.
“Our team is reviewing the proposed legislation,” Hickenlooper spokeswoman Megan Castle said.
Kyle Glazier:303-954-1638 or kglazier@denverpost.com
