Meeting Public Comments

Jay Pea [Save Standard Time]

Dear Honorable Representatives, As a native Iowan, and the founder of my nonprofit, I ask you please to oppose HF242 in the State Government Committee. Permanent Daylight Saving Time harms schoolchildren, farmers, and many others. Please recommend its amendment to permanent Standard Time. Permanent DST would delay Iowas sunrise to 8:58am, and past 8am up to 4.0 months. If constituents were asked to let government set their alarm clocks an hour early all winter, they would refusebut thats what this bill would force them to do. Permanent DST cost childrens lives when last tried in the US, and it has failed in other countries too. Its forced early waking on unnaturally dark mornings increases depression, accidents, heart disease, stroke, cancer, sports injuries, and failures in school. It would disrupt the business of farmers, ranchers, construction workers, essential workers, radio broadcasters, commuters, and others who need morning sunlight. Permanent Standard Time (natural time, Gods Time) instead would keep sunrise before 8am for health, safety, and prosperity. It is federally approved; it can end unpopular clock changes more quickly than permanent DST. Permanent Standard Time is consistently supported by professional public polling. Its the clock observed in Arizona, Hawaii, all five US territories, Mexico, and most of the world. Dozens of nonprofits and hundreds of doctors and journalists oppose permanent DST and endorse permanent Standard Time, including the American Medical Association, American Academy of Neurology, American College of Chest Physicians, National Safety Council, American Academy of Sleep Medicine, National Sleep Foundation, National PTA, American College of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, writers from Bloomberg, Star Tribune, Daily Wire, Cato, and many more. A complete letter from my nonprofit, with local photos and expert statements, is attached. Thank you for your consideration, Jay Pea President Save Standard Time 501(c)(4) Nonprofit savestandardtime.com 4154843458 linkedin.com/in/savestandard

Michael Bayer [JOHN DEERE POWER SYSTEMS]

Dear Representatives on the House State Government Committee: I am writing to vehemently oppose Section 4 of HF 356. This would modify Iowa Code 48A.14 to require a challenger to post a bond at the time of filing a challenge in an amount to be determined by the commissioner that is sufficient to cover the costs of verifying the registration of the challenged registrant. Voter registration challenges are one of the few tools that Iowa citizens can use to help clean and maintain the voter rolls. This requirement of a bond of unspecified amount would have a deterrent effect to having a citizen use this challenge process. The challenger is already signing an affidavit under penalty of law that if they file the challenge with any information they know to be false they can be found guilty of aggravated misdemeanor with penalties of up to 2 years in jail and fines up to more than $8,500. That is enough to make sure the challenge is not frivolous. When I and my fellow citizens file challenges, we make sure (under penalty of law) that we have solid evidence. I have filed many challenges and have never had one rejected based on the evidence I have presented. In Black Hawk County alone we have had one person (with help from volunteers) file VR challenges in the last 6 months to over 800 registered voters who had moved out of state and registered to vote in their new state. All of those challenges were upheld that is, the challenged voters were removed from the voter rolls. If he had to post a bond even a modest bond of $10 (probably more) the total would come to over $8,000 there is no way one person could afford that. This provision would have a very chilling almost killing effect to citizens' ability to use voter registration challenges as a tool to clean the voter rolls. I strongly encourage you to remove this Section 4 from HF 356. If you do not amend the bill to remove the bond for voter registration challenges, I would ask you to vote NO on HF 356.

Julie Kettmann [Licensed Psychologist]

I have lived and worked in Iowa for over 20 years. As a Licensed Psychologist, I would be very concerned about the passage of this bill given the research from our medical and psychology colleagues about the negative impact permanent DST can have on our health. I urge you as our representatives to please pay attention to the many respected medical organizations, representing brain health, that are strongly opposed to these types of changes nationally. These organizations include the American Medical Association, American Association of Sleep Medicine, American Academy of Neurology, American College of Chest Physicians, and the Sleep Research Society, among others. If a permanent change needs to be made, all of these major health focused associations support Permanent Standard Time. This is not a time to go against wide spread agreement in the medical community, especially when we continue to see concerns about mental health problems on the rise. Please take time to review the medical research on this matter before pushing the matter through in a vote of approval. Thank you!