Jon Lovett: I have settled the endless daylight saving time debate

“I assume people would like to have more light later, but some people want to have more light earlier because they don’t want to take their kids to school in the dark. … It’s very much a 50-50 issue. … And usually I find when that is the case, what else do we have to do?”

That was President Donald Trump’s comment to reporters about daylight saving time Thursday while speaking from the Oval Office. I would like to propose an answer to his question.

Before I get to that, some backstory. There’s a movement to make daylight saving time permanent. A bill in Congress called the Sunshine Protection Act, previously sponsored by a bipartisan group of lawmakers including Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and then-Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., would do this nationally. Nearly 20 states have passed legislation to observe permanent daylight saving time if Congress were to allow it. That’s partly because the time change is associated with health problems and accidents. And the polling on this topic is pretty clear: Americans dislike springing forward and falling back, and most would choose the later sunsets of permanent daylight saving time – a preference that cuts across time zones and latitudes. Scientifically, it gets dark too freaking early in the winter.

Like Trump, I once thought that switching to permanent daylight saving time was a great idea. But I now think this one-time-fits-all policy would be a mistake. First off, back in 1974, we tried permanent daylight saving time. It was popular. Then we experienced it. Then it was unpopular. Then Congress repealed it. Turns out, what people really like are early sunrises and late sunsets; in other words, people like summer and were shocked to find out that in winter, evening sun comes at the price of morning darkness. This is a proud American tradition: We like to pretend we can have it all right up until we can’t, and then we blame Congress.

Another issue: Experts generally prefer permanent standard time if we are going to stop moving the clocks. Something about circadian rhythms. Now I’m prepared to dismiss these concerns as “woke” or whatever we say to ignore science nowadays. But where the sleep nerds have a point is that in certain states, standard time makes more sense. Look at Michigan versus Maine. Sunrise and sunset in Detroit are almost an hour later than sunrise and sunset in Portland, which means permanent daylight saving time in Maine would be a lot like permanent standard time in Michigan.

This is why a national mandate of permanent daylight saving time isn’t the answer. It would force the same policy on states regardless of their latitude or attitude (sorry), and it might cause a backlash that could jeopardize the policy altogether. But there’s a solution that could give the heroic, bipartisan and universally beloved sponsors of the Sunshine Protection Act what they want (and what I want!) without forcing their preference on other states.

Right now, according to the Uniform Time Act of 1966, states can choose permanent standard time or they can spring forward and fall back. But states can’t choose permanent daylight saving time. All Congress has to do is revise this law to provide for this third option.

That’s it. Twenty or so states would shift to permanent daylight saving time as planned under their laws; others would probably join. Some states would stick with the current system of springing forward and falling back. And, hey, maybe a few states would join Arizona and Hawaii on permanent standard time. Everybody wins! A few states continuing to switch their clocks while most don’t would be no more complicated than our current system, in which a few states don’t switch and most do.

Do we have bigger fish to fry right now? Yes, of course. The administration is gutting federal agencies without going through Congress. Republican politicians care more about pleasing the president than protecting the Constitution. And we might be headed toward a shutdown even though Republicans control the entire government, because it turns out you can’t cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans and cut the deficit without deeply unpopular cuts to health care and social services. Still, I’m going to leave this idea here on a sticky note for when we have a moment.

So to answer the president’s question of “what else do we have to do?” – on daylight saving time, this is what we can do: Give states the right to choose permanent daylight saving time.

Now I just need somebody to show this to Elon Musk. That seems to be how the government works these days.

Jon Lovett is a host of the podcasts “Pod Save America” and “Lovett or Leave It,” a founder of Crooked Media and Vote Save America, and a co-author of “Democracy or Else.”