Clocks will spring forward one hour overnight at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 9, giving people an hour less of sleep as Daylight Saving Time (DST) kicks in for 2025.
Sunrise and sunset will be about 1 hour later on March 9 compared to March 8. There will be more light in the evening and less light in the morning. Spring officially arrives at 5:01 a.m. on Thursday, March 20.
DST ends Nov. 2 at 2 a.m., when states revert to Standard Time. The current schedule was introduced in 2007 and follows the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Most of Arizona and all of Hawaii, plus the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, don’t observe DST. All other states in the U.S. abide by schedule that started in 2007. Until 2007, DST began at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday in April and ended at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in October.
Uniform Time Act of 1966
The Uniform Time Act of 1966 established national rules for Daylight Saving Time (DST) and made it uniform across the country. Before the act, each state had its own rules for DST, including when it started and ended. States can opt out of DST and stay on standard time year-round.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) oversees the county’s time zones and also oversees the its uniform observance of DST. The agency does not have the power to repeal or change DST and doesn’t have any role in a state’s determination to observe the time change. However, if a state participates in DST, it must begin and end on federally mandated dates.
Standard Time Act
The enactment of the Standard Time Act gave Federal oversight of time zones in 1918 to the Interstate Commerce Commission, which was responsible for establishing boundaries between the standard time zones. When Congress created the DOT in 1966, the agency was then tasked with time zone governance.
State legislatures have considered over 750 bills and resolutions in recent years to establish year-round daylight saving time as soon as federal law allows it.
“Almost all states have considered legislation over the last several years that would place the state permanently on either standard time or daylight saving time. Since 2015, virtually every state has considered multiple time zone bills, but none of significance passed until 2018, when Florida became the first state to enact legislation to permanently observe DST, pending amendment of federal law to permit such action,” according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
At least 31 states have considered or are considering 67 bills or resolutions related to daylight saving time in 2025. The legislation is essentially evenly divided between those advocating permanent standard time and those that would enact year-round standard time.