Springing forward and falling back on the clock each year will still be the norm in Arkansas for the foreseeable future.
Two bills calling for year-round daylight saving time (DST) in Arkansas never made it out of a state House committee on Wednesday.
A bill proposed by Rep. Johnny Rye (R-Trumann), along with one proposed by Rep. Scott Richardson (R-Bentonville) and Rep. Wayne Long (R-Bradford), would have made daylight saving time permanent in Arkansas.
Rye pulled his bill (Bill 1039) before a vote by the State Agencies and Governmental Affairs House Committee, noting his bill needed more study before being officially proposed.
Rye’s bill would have adopted daylight saving time as Arkansas’s permanent standard time once when the U.S. government allowed states to observe DST on a permanent basis and when Arkansas’s border states had also permanently adopted it.
Bill 1104, sponsored by Richardson and Long, would have made DST permanent in the state, regardless if border states adopted it. In an article posted on KATV.com, Richardson explained his reasoning for keeping daylight saving time year-round.
“There are a lot of good reasons and good studies that suggest that daylight saving time provides a much better atmosphere for not only the economy because people are out longer in the afternoons, going and doing chores and heading out to shop and what not, but also for health,” Richardson said.
But committee members such as Rep. Jeremiah Moore had reservations about the bill concerning farming, children going to school in the dark during winter mornings, and hunting.
“If you push it back to 7:42 a.m. or there-about, these guys aren’t going to be able to duck hunt in the middle of the weekend and still make it to the office by 9 a.m.,” Moore said in the KATV article.
An Arkansas Times article also noted the Arkansas Broadcasters Association (ABA) had objections to DST 365 days a year. An ABA representative said the state’s 138 AM radio stations would be negatively impacted because they have to decrease power at sundown. Observing daylight saving time year-round would affect drivetime revenue at those stations, the ABA rep said.
Bill 1104 failed on a voice vote.
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