CASPER, Wyo. — House Bill 44 is a bill that aims to allow the elimination of seasonal time changes in Wyoming.
The Wyoming House of Representatives is holding a floor session which convened at 9:15 am Tuesday, Feb. 18. The House began by passing seven bills on a third reading consent list.
Those included a bill to create a Wyoming coal marketing program, a bill aiming to ban firearm buyback programs in the state and a bill creating a pathway for counties to make so-called “fifth penny” sales and use taxes permanent.
The daylight savings time bill is among a Tuesday, Feb. 18 Wyoming House of Representatives list of general file bills.
On Monday, the House Travel, Recreaton, Wildlife & Cultural Resources Committee approved the bill with no amendments on a vote of 8-1, sending the bill back to the full House for consideration on first reading.
Once it is taken up, the House would need to pass the bill on three readings in the House in order for the bill would move to the Senate for consideration.
If this year’s bill ends up being signed by the governor, Wyoming wouldn’t immediately stop observing daylight savings time. Montana, Idaho, Utah and Colorado would have to enact similar legislation in order for Wyoming to put the changes into practice.
The bill is tentatively scheduled for first reading vote Tuesday, but the House is first working on House Bill 01, their general government appropriations bill for the July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2022 biennium.
House District 08 Representative Bob Nicholas said that it could take up to six hours for the House to complete their introduction of House Bill 01.
House District 25 Representative Dan Laursen introduced his daylight savings time legislation ahead of an introductory vote in the House on Feb. 11. The House voted 43-15 during that vote.
“This is a bill I have brought many times, as you know,” Representative Dan Laursen said ahead of the introductory vote. “This keeps daylight savings time all year round.”
A similar piece of legislation stalled out during the Wyoming Legislature’s 2019 general session. That bill was passed by Wyoming’s House of Representatives but failed on two tie votes in the Senate.
“The residents and businesses of the state of Wyoming have become more habituated to the eight (8) months of daylight saving time per year than the four (4) months of standard time per year,” the proposed bill reads. “The biannual change of time between mountain standard time and mountain daylight time is disruptive to commerce and to the daily schedules of the residents of the state of Wyoming.”
Time in Wyoming would be referred to as “Mountain Daylight Saving Time” should the changes be put in place.
This article originally appeared on Oil City News. Used with permission.
