SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ The fate of daylight saving time in California now rests in Gov. Jerry Brown's hands.
The Assembly on Thursday sent Brown a measure that would ask voters to repeal a 70-year-old initiative enshrining the biannual changing of clocks into state law. If signed by Brown, a Democrat, that question could appear on the ballot as soon as November.
Brown's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his positions on Assembly Bill 807 or daylight saving time more broadly.
Assemblyman Kansen Chu, the San Jose Democrat who introduced the bill, has been trying for several years to eliminate the practice of springing forward and falling back, which he considers "outdated" and a detriment to public health.
Daylight saving time was established in California through a 1949 initiative that also created the Standard Pacific time zone. If approved by voters, AB 807 would allow legislators to make future changes to the law with a two-thirds vote.
Chu's ultimate goal is to move California to daylight saving time all year long. That would require a follow-up bill, as well as an exemption to federal law granted by Congress.
