Did you remember to set your clocks forward one hour before bed last night? Is your schedule off today? Daylight Savings Time (DST) started at 2 a.m. today and lasts until November 5 at 2 a.m. to get more sunlight in the evening for most of the year. It also causes havoc on schedules for weeks as people and animals adjust. If the time change throws you off balance, your local legislators are listening.
According to the National Conference of State Legislators, over 450 pieces of legislation have been introduced in recent years to establish year-round daylight savings time. Over the past five years, Colorado (2022), Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana (2021), Idaho, Louisiana, South Carolina, Utah, Wyoming (2020), Delaware, Maine, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington (2019) and Florida (2018) passed legislation providing for year round daylight savings time. However, even though the states passed legislation, it’s not recognized on a federal level. Under the Uniform Time Act, states may exempt themselves from observing Daylight Saving Time by state law, but they don’t have the authority to choose to be on permanent Daylight Saving Time. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 (15 U.S.C. §§ 260-64) establishes a system of uniform Daylight Saving Time throughout the country and its territories and stipulates that either Congress or the Secretary of Transportation are the only ones who can change a time-zone boundary. The U.S. Department of Transportation oversees time zones and the observance of Daylight Savings Time because time standards are important for modes of transportation. It has no power over Daylight Savings Time or whether a state observes it.
So far in 2023, over 20 states are considering legislation related to the time change, including Iowa and Illinois. Both states have pending legislation establishing daylight savings time as the standard time. Missouri is considering similar legislation, but it is more complicated. It “establishes the “Daylight Saving as New Standard Time Pact.” Provides that in the year in which two states bordering Missouri have passed legislation entering those states into the Daylight Saving as New Standard Time Pact, each state will switch clocks to daylight saving for the last time and daylight saving time will be eliminated. The time formerly known as daylight saving time will become standard time.”
Most Americans seem to be in favor of more hours of daylight; according to a 2022 CBS News poll, 46% of U.S. residents wanted year round daylight saving time, 33% preferred standard time year-round and 21% wanted to keep switching clocks twice a year.
