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Daylight saving time: Why does California still 'spring forward'?

By Alexa Mae Asperin
Published  March 12, 2023 3:05pm PDT
California
FOX 11

Permanent Daylight Saving Time means dark winter mornings from November to March

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Sunshine Act on Tuesday, which would make Daylight Saving Time permanent. This means Americans would never have to "spring forward" or "fall back" starting in 2023.

LOS ANGELES - Sunday, March 12 marked the beginning of Daylight Saving Time. 

That means more daylight in California, but unfortunately losing an hour of sleep. 

Daylight Saving Time is observed in every state except Arizona and Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a nonpartisan organization made up of sitting state legislators in Washington, D.C.

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Between 2015 and 2019, more than two dozen states have introduced legislation for year-round DST, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

The 29 states that want DST year-round are seeking to "abolish the twice-yearly switching of clocks," according to the transportation agency.

That includes California. Proposition 7 - although it passed in the Golden State - did not actually change DST, but rather gave the state legislature the ability to actually change it if they earn a two-thirds vote on it and if the federal government already allows it.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla) reintroduced the "Sunshine Protection Act of 2023" on March 2 to make daylight saving time permanent across the country. However, the 117th Congress expired in early January without any more action on Rubio’s bill.

Congress is in charge of time. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution grants the House and Senate the power to "fix weights and measures." The House of Representatives must first pass the bill, then President Joe Biden must sign it, before Americans can say goodbye to any sort of time change.

The U.S. first went to Daylight Saving Time to conserve energy. 

The first instance of Daylight Saving Time happened in Germany on April 6, 1916, during World War I, according to the Textual Records Division of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

The Standard Time Act of 1918 was the country’s first nationwide daylight-saving law.

FOX News Channel contributed to this report.

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