Daylight Saving Time Arrives This Weekend. Here's the Latest.

Daylight Saving Time Arrives This Weekend. Here's the Latest.

Debate to end our biannual clock-switching ritual persists.

On Sunday at 2 a.m., Americans and others around the globe will once again "spring" clocks forward to observe daylight saving time. The debate over the biannual clock change endures in state legislatures as policymakers continue to introduce legislation seeking to eliminate daylight time or make it permanent.

Lawmakers have considered over 800 bills and resolutions related to daylight time in recent years. This year, 23 measures are pending in at least 16 states, with a slight preference for standard time emerging as an early trend.

Related: Daylight Saving Time | State Legislation

The federal Uniform Time Act of 1966 allows states to use year-round standard time but does not allow them to enact permanent DST. Arizona (except for the Navajo Nation) and Hawaii have opted to stay on standard time year-round and not observe DST. Likewise, the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands do not observe daylight time.

A notable development last year was the passage in the North Dakota House of Representatives of a measure (HB 1259) to permanently adopt standard time. The bill ultimately failed in the Senate-where it had been amended to support permanent daylight time.

There was general agreement that biannual clock-switching is not ideal.

Rep. Desiree Morton (R) says testimony supporting the bill cited widely reported adverse health effects of changing clocks twice a year. "These changes can take several weeks to adjust to and often put parents and kids into a sleep debt, causing mental and physical fatigue, especially the parents," she told the nonprofit North Dakota Monitor.

But even in the House, personal preferences emerged. Legislators voting against the bill favored DST's extra hour of evening daylight.

Ultimately, the bill's failure might have come down to a desire to avoid regional confusion. Sen. Michael Dwyer (R), who voted against the bill, told the Monitor the decision should be left to future lawmakers, if Congress or a neighboring state makes a change.

Will Congress Act?

Eighteen states have enacted legislation to provide for year-round daylight saving time. However, the bills will take effect only if Congress were to allow the change and, in some cases, if surrounding states enact the same legislation. States cannot unilaterally change time zones or alter the length of daylight time, which begins and ends on statutorily mandated dates. Thus, Congress must act before states can implement year-round daylight time. A bill to make daylight time permanent-the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025 (HR 139)-was introduced in Congress last year but remains stalled in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The states that have enacted legislation to authorize year-round daylight saving time include Oklahoma (2024); Colorado (2022); Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi and Montana (2021); Idaho (Pacific time zone only), Louisiana; South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming (2020); Delaware, Maine, Oregon (Pacific time zone only), Tennessee and Washington (2019); and Florida (2018). Resolutions passed in Kentucky (2022) and Ohio (2020) in prior years have been removed from the NCSL count. California voters approved Proposition 7 in 2018, requiring a two-thirds vote by the Legislature to either enact year-round DST or permanent standard time, but no legislative action has occurred since.

So, as the national debate persists, and state-specific initiatives are deliberated, clock changing remains the law of the land in all but a few places.

For more on time change bills, see the NCSL report Daylight Saving Time | State Legislation.

For more on the history of time zones and daylight saving time, visit the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Another good resource for bill tracking on time zone issues is sponsored by Save Standard Time.