There have been rumors circulating among the public and on social media that we won't fall back in November because a bill was passed that ended clock changes.
While a bill was passed, we're here to tell you that at 2 a.m. on Sunday, November 6, we will still turn our clocks back an hour.
Why the confusion? The U.S. Senate passed a bill in March 2022 called the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021. The bill would abolish clock changes and keep Daylight Saving Time permanently.
While the U.S. Senate did pass that bill, it has not been taken up in the U.S. House of Representatives. So the House would have to pass the bill and it would have to be signed by the President before it would become official.
Even if that were to happen in the next couple of weeks, it would not become law until next year in November 2023. So we'd still move our clocks forward in March 2023 and then wouldn't change them again.
Every March, we turn the clocks forward an hour. So, what would happen if we kept daylight saving time all year? Several things.
It would be fine in the summer as day light saving time gives later sunsets and the sun rises at a decent hour. In January though, the sun wouldn't rise until between 8 and 9 a.m. in most portions of the U.S. That means kids standing in the dark at bus stops, and the volume of traffic is much higher after dark. Also, because the sun wouldn't rise until significantly later, that means colder mornings with roads staying icy longer.
The process of manually re-setting clocks has been supplanted in many cases by electronic devices - cell phones, tablets, watches, computers - that automatically roll back time.
Daylight Saving Time will begin again on March 12, 2023.
The NASA website explains the origin of Daylight Saving Time:
In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed an act into law whereby Daylight Saving Time begins on the last Sunday of April and ends on the last Sunday of October each year. However, any State can opt out of Daylight Saving Time by passing a State law.
Hawaii does not observe Daylight Saving Time and neither does Arizona (although the Navajo Nation, in northeastern Arizona, does). For many years, most of Indiana did not observe Daylight Saving Time with the exception of 10 counties. Beginning in 2006, all of Indiana now observes Daylight Saving Time.
Until 2007, the return to Standard Time occurred on the last Sunday of October, but in 2005, Congress changed the date to the first Sunday of November.
Some people enjoy the twice-yearly ritual of tinkering with time, feeling that “springing forward” or “falling back” helps to usher in a more seasonal atmosphere.
Other people, however, don’t like the idea of trying to trick our bodies and our daily routines by adjusting the clocks.
MT State Senator Ryan Osmundson (R-Buffalo) introduced a bill in the state Legislature in 2017 to exempt Montana from the time-change; the bill died in committee. That was not the first time a Montana lawmaker has tried to tinker with time. For instance, in the 2011 Legislature, MT State Representative Kris Hansen (R-Havre) introduced a similar proposal to take Montana off of the time-changing standard.
The proposal stated: “The state of Montana rejects switching between standard time and daylight saving time and elects to remain on daylight saving time in Montana throughout the year.” The bill was tabled in committee and no further action was taken.
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