Lankford calls to ‘lock the clock’ over daylight saving time

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) reiterated his call to “lock the clock” on Sunday as most of the U.S. transitioned to daylight saving time overnight.

Lankford had co-sponsored Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) Sunshine Protection Act that would make daylight saving time the permanent time in the U.S. and that passed the Senate in 2022. Rubio renewed his push for the bill last week, saying his legislation would “end this stupid practice of changing our clocks back and forth.”

Lankford said on CNN’s “State of the Union’ on Sunday that he hopes “we can keep the conversation going on this to actually pass Congress.”

“My issue is, lock the clock. Let’s not have the back-and-forth on this. This has come up so many times with folks that are moms, that their little kids don’t make that shift. Whether you’re in agriculture, it’s hard to be able to make that shift,” he said.

He noted that most of Arizona did not wake up Sunday to having to switch their clocks.

“We want to be able to lock this clock. A lot of people are annoyed by it. It’s a relic of World War I, actually, when we were trying to save lamp oil. Let’s actually flick our lights on, and we can do this. In Arizona, they have done this for years, and, somehow, their kids are still getting to school on time, commerce is still happening,” he said.

“And today, in Arizona, they’re not —they’re not waking up with a clock that’s messed up,” he said.

Daylight saving time (DST) began March 10 at 2 a.m. local time. Every state in the U.S. shifts their clocks twice a year to switch between standard time and daylight saving — except Hawaii and most of Arizona.