Congress legislates a headache for the IT industry
This past weekend we sprung forward (for daylight saving time) two weeks earlier than we normally would have. Most years it takes my body a couple of weeks to adjust. This year I won't have a problem (because I'm so tired from having been on call for the change) and I can thank my congressmen for that.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005, specifically §110, reads:
(a) Ammendment.—Section 3(a) of the Uniform Time Act of 1966 (15 U.S.C. 260a(a)) is ammended—
(1) by striking "first Sunday of April" and inserting "second Sunday of March"; and
(2) by striking "last Sunday of October" and inserting "first Sunday of November".
(b) Effective Date.—Subsection (a) shall take effect 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act or March 1, 2007 whichever is later.
(c) Report to Congress.—Not later than 9 months after the effective date stated in subsection (b), the Secretary shall report to Congress on the impact of this section on energy consumption in the United States.
(d) Right to Revert.—Congress retains the right to revert the Daylight Saving Time back to the 2005 time schedules once the Department study is complete.
This isn't the first time DST has changed since the initial Uniform Time Act of 1966 established DST between the last Sunday in April and the last Sunday in October:
- 1974: During the energy crisis DST began on the first Sunday in January (!) and ended on the last Sunday in October
- 1975: During the energy crisis DST began on last Sunday in February and ended on the last Sunday in October
- 1976-1986: DST in effect between the last Sunday in April and the last Sunday in October (i.e., back to the original 1966 period)
- 1987-2006: DST in effect between the first Sunday in April and the last Sunday in October
- 2007: DST in effect between the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November
- Beyond? Depends on Congress...
Two decades ago (in 1987) when DST last changed in the United States computers were not nearly as pervasive and networked as they are today. Novell Netware was only a few years old. The US DoD had standardized on TCP/IP a mere five years earlier, and there were only an estimated 28,000 or so hosts on the entire Internet.
The world is a much more complexly internetworked place now. Congresses (temporary?) change of the DST rules necessitated substantial updates to many computer systems.
It took a lot of "busy work" to get ready for what some have called Y2K7. For me Sun Microsystem's belated alert regarding EST & MST backwards compatibility in Java resulted in substantial on-call pay this weekend. (Thanks Sun!) It is at times like these that having Expect in my toolbox really comes in handy.
At many companies that use Microsoft Exchange you'll be pretty much free to miss (or be up to an hour late) for any meeting you don't want to attend for the next three weeks. Yet another benefit of this legislation. :-)
Oh, and there are special tax breaks for consumers available (unrelated to daylight savings) too.
Having delved into the Congressional Record once before, I decided to see if there had been any congressional debate or discussion on the technology impact of changing the DST rules.
Debate on the Energy Policy Act of 2005 came to the House floor on April 20-21, 2005 and then again (after passage by the Senate and a conference committee between the House and the Senate) on July 27-29.
Overall the act was quite controversial, but even those who were almost completely opposed to it saw the daylight saving change as a good thing (emphasis added below):
I have the greatest respect and affection for the Chairman of the Committee, the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton), but I must say in all honesty that this is really a terrible energy bill.
The Chairman comes from Texas, and I'm sure that from a Lone Star State perspective, this looks like a pretty good bill. But most of our constituents don't come from oil producing states. Most of our constituents are energy consumers, and from a consumer perspective this bill is seriously deficient. In fact, I would suggest that this bill is a bit like that old Clint Eastwood spaghetti Western: "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."
There is a tiny bit of good in the bill--like extending daylight saving time by a month in the Spring and a month in the Fall. Now, that was a good idea, it really was--and I'm glad that the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) and I were able to get it in the bill.
But in all honesty I think I have to say that for the most part, what we have here before us today is one truly Bad and Ugly bill.
— Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), April 20, 2005, Congressional Record, H2195
Nobody voiced any opposition, questions, or concerns about changing the start and end dates of daylight saving time. Those that even bothered mentioning it uniformly praised the effects it would affect on reducing energy consumption, lower crime, and reducing traffic accidents. (Always without citing any specific studies or reports to back up those claims.)
No one apparently foresaw (not even those who think Republicans are out to get the sick and the elderly) the warnings the FDA would issue earlier this year:
Dear Healthcare Practitioner, Hospital Director and Safety Manager:
This is to alert you to the possibility that some medical devices (equipment), hospital networks and associated information technology systems may generate adverse events because of the upcoming change in the start and end dates for Daylight Savings Time (DST), and to suggest actions you can take to prevent such occurrences.
While we do not know which specific devices might be affected, FDA is concerned about medical devices or medical device networks that operate together or interact with other networked devices, e.g. where a synchronization of clocks may be necessary.
If a medical device or medical device network is adversely affected by the new DST date changes, a patient treatment or diagnostic result could be:
- incorrectly prescribed
- provided at the wrong time
- missed
- given more than once
- given for longer or shorter durations than intended
- incorrectly recorded
Any of these unpredictable events could harm patients and not be obvious to clinicians responsible for their care.
— FDA Preliminiary Public Health Notification
Unpredictable Events in Medical Equipment due to New Daylight Savings Time Change
March 1, 2007
Am I bitter about daylight savings? No—I lived through the 1993 temporal chaos caused by the government of the Brazilian state of Amazonas just fine.
I am disappointed that there doesn't appear to have been any recognition in Congress—at least on the record—that changing the DST rules in 2007 is a bigger deal than it was in 1987 or during 1973-74.
Let's at least hope Congress will continue to stick with the Gregorian Calendar however!
—Michael A. Cleverly
Monday, March 12, 2007 at 20:43
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Fri, 13 May 2022, 04:15