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A clock sitting outside
At 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 6, clocks in most parts of the United States will turn back one hour as Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends.
There has been legislation introduced to make DST permanent starting in 2023.
In March, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Sunshine Act that would make DST permanent starting in 2023, ending the bi-annual changing of clocks. The House of Representative must pass the bill before it goes to President Joe Biden to sign.
Bill co-sponsor Sen. Marco Rubio said the change would not take place until November 2023 after input from airlines and broadcasters.
Thirty states have introduced legislation to end DST. Arizona and Hawaii do not observe DST, as well as American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Since it was first tried in 1918 for a seven-month period through 1919, the U.S. has been inconsistent when it comes to DST. It was used again during World War 2 from Feb. 9, 1942, to Sept. 30, 1945. From 1945 to 1966, states were free to choose to observe DST or not.
The Uniform Time Act of 1966 established a system of uniform (within each time zone) DST throughout the U.S., exempting states in which the legislatures voted to keep the entire state on standard time.
In 1972, Congress revised the law so if a state was in two or more time zones, the state could exempt the part of the state that was in one time zone, while providing that the part of the state in a different time zone would observe Daylight Saving Time. Federal law was amended in 1986 to begin DST on the first Sunday in April.
Under legislation enacted in 1986, DST began at 2 a.m. the first Sunday of April and ended at 2 a.m. the last Sunday of October.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended DST in the U.S. beginning in 2007, though Congress retained the right to revert to the 1986 law should the change prove unpopular or if energy savings are not significant. Since 2007, DST begins at 2 a.m. the second Sunday of March and ends 2 a.m. the first Sunday of November.