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Arkansas committee hears hours of testimony on bill to keep standard time year‑round; proposal fails in committee
Summary
After extended testimony and expert witnesses, the House State Agencies & Governmental Affairs Committee declined to advance Rep. Steven Meeks' bill to adopt year‑round standard time; an amendment to add cosponsors was adopted earlier in the hearing.
Representative Steven Meeks, R‑District 42, told the House State Agencies & Governmental Affairs Committee that House Bill 1069, which would stop observing daylight saving time and keep Arkansas on standard time year‑round, would “affect the health and well‑being, both physically and mentally, of every citizen of the state.”
Meeks opened with a brief history of daylight saving time and argued that switching clocks harms sleep and public health. “The only option we have to lock the clock as it currently stand is to go to standard time year round,” Meeks said, urging members to prioritize what he described as health benefits for children and the broader population.
The bill’s supporters included Elspeth Fast, identified in the hearing as a behavioral sleep specialist and adjunct professor at the Alice Walton School of Medicine, who described…
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