Assuming you live in one of the many places that still enforce the practice, were you annoyed over the weekend when you had to set your clocks ahead by an hour again? (Or at least the clocks that don’t do it automatically, as many now do.) We certainly were at my house. A very solid majority of the country (according to one recent poll) would prefer to do away with daylight savings time. And there’s a bill stalled in Congress that would make it happen. But the bill isn’t expected to advance this year. Why not? Who is to blame for this? Well, as the Free Beacon reported this week, the culprit is none other than Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Most Americans don’t like having to change their clocks twice a year for daylight saving time. An AP-NORC poll from late 2019 found that 71 percent of Americans preferred a permanent year-long time system. There’s a bipartisan bill designed to eliminate the controversial “fall back, spring forward,” but it’s being held up in part because of an unlikely source: Pete Buttigieg, the scandal-plagued secretary of transportation.

The Washington Post reports that Congress is unlikely to pass legislation anytime soon. The Sunshine Protection Act, cosponsored by Sens. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Ed Markey (D., Mass.), needs more support from undecided lawmakers to gain traction.

I’ll be among the first who is willing to blame Mayor Pete for any number of things. He’s clearly one of the more incompetent and unmotivated people to ever hold that position. But what does he have to do with daylight savings time or the Sunshine Protection Act?

As it turns out, Buttigieg really is involved in this process, though it’s unclear if anyone has tried to explain this to him yet. The Department of Transportation has been conducting a review of daylight savings time since 2021. What there is to “review” about changing the clocks has yet to be explained, but it’s taking a long time. And a spokesperson for the department told reporters last month that it’s “not expected to be finished this year.” Many members of Congress are reluctant to move forward with the bill until they see the results of the review.

But Buttigieg is the person who is ostensibly in charge of that department. He could prioritize this and put some people on the task to get it wrapped up sooner. Why hasn’t he? The Transportation Department’s reputation is in shambles at the moment, what with all of the toxic train crashes and near misses on airport runways, not to mention the rest of the supply chain problems.

Given the popularity of this idea and the bipartisan support the measure enjoys, this should be something that Buttigieg could knock out of the park. He has the chance to be a hero, but he’s once again missing in action and coming out looking like a zero. Does he have anyone in his circle of advisors who cares enough about him to pull him aside and give him a few tips?

Pete Buttigieg was selected for this cabinet position despite having absolutely no background whatsoever in the transportation industry and no managerial experience beyond running a small city where the infrastructure was so poorly managed he picked up the nickname “Pothole Pete.” Everyone knows why he was hired, along with Sam Brinton and a number of other dubious choices, so we don’t have to bother saying it here. But as soon as he arrived in Washington, he immediately took off on paternity leave and went on some flashy vacations overseas. Even when he was ostensibly on the job, he didn’t seem very interested in doing it. How long did it take before he finished his “personal time” and went to East Palestine? And thanks to that lack of attention to his job, you’ll probably be changing your clocks yet again this fall and for who knows how long after that.