What Happened to the End of Daylight Saving Time?
Soon it will be time for our clocks to “retreat” again—November. 3 is the date we will end daylight saving time in 2024 and return to standard time. But then in the spring, most likely, we will have to change the clocks again. So what happened to the bills in Congress to repeal the time change?
We’re not getting a nationwide ban on time changes (yet).
The Sunshine Protection Act was a federal bill that made daylight saving time permanent. If passed, it would have gone into effect on November 5, 2023, the day we would otherwise have changed the clocks. As a result, our winter mornings will remain dark for an hour longer than they are now, but we will get an hour more daylight on our winter evenings.
The bill passed the Senate in March 2022 but failed to pass the House. To become law, it had to be passed by the House of Representatives and then signed by the President. For now, that ship has sailed: The Hill reported that people generally like the idea of ending the clock change, but there was no consensus in the House of Representatives on whether daylight saving time or standard time should become permanent. Moreover, passing the bill never seemed to be a top priority for legislators.
Meanwhile, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine has taken the position that we should remain on standard time (i.e., Daylight Saving Time) year-round, since disrupting our circadian rhythms twice a year has detrimental effects on our health and safety. If they had their way, we would have retreated within a year and never jumped forward again.
What about state legislatures?
States have their own ideas about what time should be. Currently, two states currently operate on standard time year-round: Hawaii and Arizona (except for the Navajo Nation). If the Sunshine Protection Act or similar legislation is passed making daylight saving time permanent, these states would be allowed to keep their standard time if they choose.
Nineteen other states have passed laws or resolutions saying they would adopt permanent daylight saving time if the federal government ever allowed them to do so. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, these states are Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. . California voters also approved legislation that has not yet been formally passed.
However, until federal legislation is passed, these states will stick to their current time zones. Current federal law, passed in 1966 , allows states to opt out of daylight saving time (as Hawaii and Arizona have done), but does not give states the ability to make daylight saving time permanent or choose their own dates for changing clocks. If you’re tired of time changes, you can always move to one of the territories that don’t observe daylight saving time, which includes the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.