Now is the time. As it does every year, Daylight Saving Time has begun, and there is once again a heated discussion about whether it is necessary. Many people aren’t sure if this will be the last time the clocks change since they were turned back right after Halloween.
The Uniform Time Act of 1966 says that the U.S. government has to “promote the adoption and observance of uniform time within the standard time zones.” For those who think it’s not necessary, Daylight Saving Time is still required by law through the Standard Time Act of 1918. Some states have passed laws that let them not follow federal law. That being said, the rule will need to be changed at the federal level for real change to happen.
What states follow Daylight Saving Time?
There are some parts of the country where federal law is not followed, but most states fully follow it. There is no Daylight Saving Time in Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, the Northern Marina Islands, or the U.S. Virgin Islands because they are not part of the mainland U.S.
This is not a problem though because they are not in the U.S. The state of Hawaii also doesn’t follow it, but since it’s an island and not really part of the country, it’s not as much of a bother.
The trouble starts in Arizona, which is in the continental U.S. and has different ideas about how to enforce the law. The Navajo Nation in northern Arizona uses Daylight Saving Time, but the rest of the state does not. This makes it hard to tell which parts of the state are in which time zone.
Some states are also worried, though not as much, because they have passed laws that support Daylight Saving Time all year. However, those bills and laws can’t go into effect until the Uniform Time Act is revoked. 19 states have passed laws about Daylight Saving Time so far. These include Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Louisiana, Utah, and Oregon. In the next few years, many more could follow suit.
A lot of politicians agree with this, like U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who proposed “The Sunshine Protection Act” in 2018 to make sure that the whole country stays on Daylight Saving Time all year. His study, which was included in the bill, says that keeping the country on Daylight Saving Time would lower the risk of seasonal depression, cut down on theft and other crimes, help farmers, and use less energy, among other things.
Even though it was presented and passed unanimously by the U.S. Congress in 2022, the bill was never signed by either the U.S. House of Representatives or President Joe Biden, which stopped the process and stopped it from happening. USA Today says that a different form of the bill was tried again in 2023, but there was no longer any support for it, and it never made it past Congress.
What this means is that things will stay the same for now, and Daylight Saving Time will start up again on March 9, 2025. The good things about this change might outweigh the bad things. Michael Downing, author of “Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time,” says that the idea came about because “golf ball sales went through the roof during Daylight Saving Time…”
Another big fan of early starts is baseball. Since parks don’t have artificial lighting, they start later to get school kids and workers to the games during the longer daylight hours. All of these benefits mean that this practice might last for many more years.