House may vote on illegal daylight bill

INDIANAPOLIS -- The sponsor of legislation that seeks to put all of Indiana on daylight-saving said Wednesday that he will likely ask the full House to pass the bill even though it includes provisions the federal government have deemed illegal.\nSenate President Pro Tem Robert Garton (R-Columbus) said his chamber could not accept the bill in its current form, however, and it would have to be fixed in a House-Senate conference committee first before proceeding any further in the Senate.\nA faster route requiring no changes would be out of the question, Garton said, "Because you should not knowingly violate federal law or regulations."\nThe provisions deemed illegal would have allowed counties next to areas in the Central time zone to opt out of observing the time change if the bill became law. Those include counties bordering Illinois and the 10 northwestern and southwestern Indiana counties now lying in the Central time zone.\nUnder that change, counties next to those that opt out could then do the same. But the U.S. Department of Transportation, which regulates time zones, said those provisions would violate federal law. \nThe House amended the changes into the bill Monday at the request of Rep. Dale Grubb, D-Covington, who opposes the bill.\nGarton said if the House passes the bill in its current form, the Senate sponsor would file a dissent and send the bill to a conference committee where changes could be made.\n"Could differences be reconciled? I don't know," Garton said.\nIf they were, any revised bill would then be sent to the Senate Rules Committee, where Garton has promised a full public hearing before the panel would vote on it.\nIf that bill clears the Rules Committee, it would be voted on by the full Senate. If it passes there, it would require another successful vote in the House before it could be sent to Gov. Mitch Daniels. He has made a strong push this session for moving the entire state to daylight time.\nThe U.S. Department of Transportation, which regulates time zones, cited a federal law Tuesday that says any state with more than one time zone can only exempt either the entire state from daylight time or all of its area within any single time zone.\nBut Republican Rep. Jerry Torr of Carmel, the bill's primary sponsor, said he would likely seek a House vote on the amended bill anyway because he probably lacked the votes needed to fix it first. If it passes, he and other proponents would count on a conference committee and the Senate to remove the illegal provisions.\nSince the bill is up for final passage in the House, amending it again to remove the illegal language would require a two-thirds majority vote. It also would take a two-thirds majority to send the bill back to the amendment stage so it could be fixed. Torr said there was probably not enough support in the House to make either move.\nThere also is no guarantee the bill in any form would pass the House, since daylight-saving time has been a divisive issue among Indiana lawmakers and their constituents for decades. Attempts to mandate statewide observance of the time change have failed numerous times since the General Assembly voted in 1971 to keep counties in the Eastern time zone on standard time year round.\nSeventy-seven counties in the Eastern zone do not change their clocks twice a year like 47 other states do. Five southeastern counties in the Eastern zone observe daylight time, but have never been sanctioned by the state or federal governments for doing so.