Most Americans don't like having to change their clocks twice a year for daylight saving time. An AP-NORC poll from late 2019 found that 71 percent of Americans preferred a permanent year-long time system. There's a bipartisan bill designed to eliminate the controversial "fall back, spring forward," but it's being held up in part because of an unlikely source: Pete Buttigieg, the scandal-plagued secretary of transportation.
The Washington Post reports that Congress is unlikely to pass legislation anytime soon. The Sunshine Protection Act, cosponsored by Sens. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Ed Markey (D., Mass.), needs more support from undecided lawmakers to gain traction.
Alas, some of those undecided members of Congress told the Post they planned to withhold support until the U.S. Department of Transportation, led by Buttigieg, finishes its ongoing review of daylight saving time policies. Presumably due to Buttigieg's inexperience and lackadaisical leadership style, the review is "not expected to be completed until year's end."
Buttigieg's inability to reform our time system has been denounced by critics including Jimmy Kimmel, the left-wing political activist and late-night television host. "The last time Pete [Buttigieg] was on our show, I asked him to end [daylight saving time]," Kimmel said in November 2021. "He said he'd see what he could do. You know what he did? He did nothing. He did nothing at all."
It's not clear if Buttigieg even understands how daylight saving time works. "Here's what 8 a.m. looks like on the western edge of the eastern time zone, a few days before daylight savings kicks in," he wrote on Twitter in November 2018.
"I stand corrected," he tweeted several minutes later. "Daylight Savings is underway, so it's about to kick... out?"
Buttigieg is widely considered (without evidence) to be a rising star in the Democratic Party who will almost certainly be elected president someday. (He won't.)
READ MORE:
• TRAIN WRECK: All the Transportation Scandals on Pete Buttigieg's Watch
• FACT CHECK: Pete Buttigieg Is a 'Capable and Competent' Leader