The States That Don’t Observe Daylight Saving Time—and the Ones Trying to Stay in It Permanently

The sun will soon appear to rise earlier in the morning and set earlier in the evening for most people in the U.S., as Daylight Saving Time ends and Standard Time begins again. But for millions of Americans whose states don’t observe Daylight Saving Time, the clocks will remain unchanged. Other states are trying to stay in Daylight Saving Time permanently. They have yet to secure the right to do so, however, and will once again have to fall back an hour this weekend as the controversial cycle rolls on. Here’s what to know about Daylight Saving Time and where states—and President Donald Trump—stand on the issue. When do the clocks go back this year? Daylight Saving Time will end on Nov. 2 at 2 a.m. local time this year, meaning that at that time, the clocks will shift backward by one hour. After that, the sun will appear to rise earlier in the day and set earlier in the evening.  Standard Time will continue until Daylight Saving Time starts again next March, when the clocks will move forward by one hour. The twice-a-year practice of changing the clocks was permanently established with the Uniform Time Act of 1966. The law allows states to exempt themselves from Daylight Saving Time if they choose to do so, but it doesn’t allow states to “independently change time zones or the length” of Daylight Saving Time. Seven years after the law was passed, the U.S. briefly enacted year-round Daylight Saving Time under President Richard Nixon in 1973 in an effort to reduce energy consumption amid an energy crisis. But Congress voted to return to Standard Time just eight months later. Read more: The U.S. Tried Permanent Daylight Saving Time Before. Here’s What Happened What states don’t participate in Daylight Saving Time? Hawaii and most of Arizona don’t observe the practice; instead, they use Standard Time year-round.  The U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands also don’t observe Daylight Saving Time. What states are trying to make Daylight Saving Time permanent? In recent years, lawmakers in states across the country have expressed support for making Daylight Saving Time permanent. Doing so would mean advancing the clocks forward an hour for the whole year, so that the sun would appear to rise and set an hour later in both the summer and in the winter. A bipartisan bill called the Sunshine Protection Act, which would have made Daylight Saving Time permanent, has been introduced in Congress a few times in recent years. It was reintroduced earlier this year by Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, but has since stalled. Several states—including Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Oregon—have passed legislation to make Daylight Saving Time permanent. But because those laws are contingent on congressional approval, the year-round observation isn’t currently implemented in any state so far. Read More: How Daylight Saving Time Could Change Under Trump What has Trump said about Daylight Saving Time? In 2019, Trump expressed support for making Daylight Saving Time permanent, tweeting, “Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me!” But since then, the President has suggested ending the practice altogether. In December 2024, about a month after he was elected for a second term, he posted on Truth Social, “The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t! Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our nation.” In March, Trump called Daylight Saving Time “a 50-50 issue,” saying that people are divided on it, according to Reuters.