Californians voted for permanent daylight saving time. So why did we set our clocks back Sunday?

Four years ago, a majority of Californians voted in favor of a ballot measure empowering the Legislature to end to the biannual ritual of clock-changing for daylight saving time.

On Sunday, Californians set their clocks back an hour.

What happened?

A mandate from the people

More than 7.1 million Californians, nearly 60% of the total vote, said yes to 2018’s Proposition 7. The ballot measure authorized state lawmakers to pass legislation putting an end to the time change.

It had been championed by then-Assemblyman Kansen Chu, D-San Jose. After it passed, Chu introduced a bill that would put California on permanent daylight saving time, something that would require permission from the federal government.

But Chu pulled the bill and turned it into a two-year measure saying, “My main goal will always be to stop the practice of switching back and forth, and I am dedicated to make this a reality.”

Then the bill died in committee.

Then Chu left office and the cause lost its champion.

Irvine Republican Assemblyman Steven Choi took up the mantle this year, with Assembly Bill 2868. It failed get the required two-thirds vote required in order for it to pass.

Will Congress act?

Congress isn’t exactly rushing to put an end to the biannual clock change.

The U.S. Senate, a rare unanimous vote, earlier this year passed Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio’s Sunshine Protection Act, which would permanently lock in daylight saving time. But the bill has languished in the U.S. House of Representatives.

It is currently sitting in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The chair, New Jersey Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., said in a statement that he doesn’t want to make a hasty change that will have to be reversed years later when public opinion turns against it, referring to when Congress voted in the 70s to make daylight saving time permanent.

“We haven’t been able to find consensus in the House on this yet. There are a broad variety of opinions about whether to keep the status quo, to move to a permanent time, and if so, what time that should be. These opinions don’t break down by party, but instead by region,” Pallone said.

Rubio agrees that this isn’t a partisan issue, but disputes that it is a regional one, calling it “a commonsense issue.”

“States all around the country are passing laws to make DST permanent, but Washington, D.C. needs to act. I don’t know why the House refuses to pass this bill – it seems like they are rarely in session – but I will keep pushing to make this a reality,” Rubio said in a statement.