HB 31-OBSERVE DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME ALL YEAR  4:06:03 PM CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS announced that the final order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 31, "An Act relating to daylight saving time; and providing for an effective date." 4:06:54 PM REPRESENTATIVE DAN ORTIZ, Alaska State Legislature, prime sponsor, introduced HB 31. He presented the sponsor statement [included in the committee packet], which read as follows [original punctuation provided]: House Bill 31 establishes Daylight Saving Time (DST) as the official time for the State of Alaska year- round, subject to the authorization of federal law. DST is observed between the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November. Adoption of this legislation is the first step. To fully implement the change to full-time DST, action by the United States Congress is required. Congress will need to amend federal law to allow states to observe DST throughout the calendar year. Nationally, the initiative to change to full-time DST is gaining traction. As of December 2020, 13 states have enacted DST legislation. In 2020 alone, 32 states considered DST legislation. On the west coast, California voters authorized the change pending legislation and in 2019, both Washington and Oregon passed legislation similar to HB31. Our Canadian neighbors have also taken steps to move to full-time DST. British Columbia passed legislation to implement full-time DST contingent on the U.S. west coast also implementing it. Yukon began full-time DST on March 8, 2020. Because of our close economic and geographic ties to the U.S. and Canadian west coasts, Alaska can avoid being 'left in the dark' by passing HB31. 4:09:26 PM REPRESENTATIVE KAUFMAN inquired about the benefits of switching to Daylight Savings Time (DST). REPRESENTATIVE ORTIZ recalled that there was a bill introduced in a previous legislature that proposed switching to Standard Time, which received pushback, particularly from the tourism industry due to a concern about less daylight in the summertime and consequently, a potential decline in economic opportunity. He believed that there would be less pushback if the state were to switch to DST; nonetheless, it would still impact certain communities, such as those on the Aleutian Islands during the wintertime. 4:11:53 PM REPRESENTATIVE KAUFMAN sought to confirm that the proposed legislation would align the state with its primary summertime marketplace, the tourism industry, thus indicating a financial bias. REPRESENTATIVE ORTIZ confirmed. 4:12:27 PM REPRESENTATIVE ORTIZ in response to a question from Representative Tarr, stated that if the bill were to pass, Alaska would be on a three-hour time difference from the East Coast for half of the year, and a four-hour time difference for the other half. He clarified that Alaska would not roll back in the fall to Standard Time, at which time, the East Coast would roll back, so Alaska would be one hour closer. CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS asked whether the bill sponsor was familiar with the history of time zone law in Alaska. REPRESENTATIVE ORTIZ answered, "Vaguely." CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS asked whether it was within the purview of the legislature to determine which parts of the state were in what time zone. REPRESENTATIVE ORTIZ was unsure. He noted that the bill was contingent on authorization from the federal government. CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS recalled that Alaska used to have multiple time zones, which led him to believe that the legislature consolidated those time zones. 4:16:47 PM REPRESENTATIVE CLAMAN shared his understanding that the state must receive approval from the federal government to implement changes to the time zone in different parts of the state; however, he believed that the federal government tended to approve those changes. 4:17:36 PM REPRESENTATIVE KAUFMAN pointed out that the financial industry, or other industries with strong ties to the East Coast, might have concerns about this proposal. REPRESENTATIVE ORTIZ agreed. 4:18:40 PM CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS announced that HB 31 was held over.