by Anna Kaminski, Kansas Reflector
January 7, 2025
TOPEKA — A Kansas legislator renewed attempts to rid the state of daylight saving time under a bill filed ahead of the state’s 2025 legislative session, which begins later this month.
Senate Bill 1, which was prefiled Friday, seeks to exempt Kansas from participating in the national practice of switching clocks back an hour every November and forward again every March.
Sen.-elect Kenny Titus, a Wamego Republican who was elected to the Senate in November after serving a term in the House, is sponsoring the bill that would create year-round standard time beginning November 2025.
“Every year I get asked by constituents why the state doesn’t do something about switching clocks back and forth,” Titus said. “Most often I hear from folks that they don’t really care if we are on daylight saving or standard time, they just want to keep it consistent throughout the year.”
Recent attempts to put an end to the time changes at state and federal levels have failed. The last attempt in Kansas was in 2021 when Rep. Shannon Francis, a Republican from Liberal, drafted a resolution asking Congress to eradicate standard time and stick with daylight time year-round.
Only Arizona, Hawaii and the U.S.’s unincorporated territories are exempt from the switch.
In 2022, the U.S. Senate passed a bill that would’ve made daylight saving time permanent, but the U.S. House declined to take it up.
Despite the U.S. House’s resistance, Titus said, “it shows there is popular support to at least talk about making a change.”
A 2021 AP-NORC poll found that 75% of Americans want to stop switching their clocks, and studies have shown switching clocks can be detrimental to sleep habits and overall health.
“When I compared the arguments for daylight saving time and standard time, the primary benefit of daylight saving time was increased consumer spending (because there is more daylight in the evening for shopping and activities) compared to the increased health benefits of standard time with more daylight in the morning
In comparing year-round daylight saving time to standard time, Titus found increased consumer spending was the primary benefit because of more daylight in the evening for shopping and activities. More daylight in the morning with year-round standard time, on the other hand, can lead to health benefits, he said.
“For me, it was a no-brainer to prioritize the health of Kansans,” Titus said.
President-elect Donald Trump vowed last month in a post to social media platform X that the Republican Party would attempt to eliminate daylight saving time, calling it “inconvenient” and “costly.” Titus’ bill provides for the possibility of Congress taking its own action.
His is the only Senate bill to be prefiled so far.
“The primary issue is fairly straightforward, so I thought it was best to get the conversation started before committee calendars are filled up with other topics,” he said.
Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com.
