On Tuesday, July 14, 2026, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent across the country. The vote was 308-117, a strong bipartisan margin. The legislation now heads to the Senate, where a similar measure has stalled before.
If signed into law, Americans would stop changing their clocks twice a year. No more springing forward in March. No more falling back in November. The clocks would stay on daylight saving time year-round.
What the bill actually does
The Sunshine Protection Act was folded into a larger motor vehicle safety bill, which helped it move through the House. The core provision is straightforward: states would observe daylight saving time permanently, meaning clocks stay one hour ahead of standard time all year.
Under current federal law, states can opt out of daylight saving time entirely (as Arizona and Hawaii do), but they are not allowed to make daylight saving time permanent without congressional approval. This bill grants that approval.
The bill does not force states to observe DST. States that already use standard time year-round, like Arizona and Hawaii, can continue to do so. But states that currently switch between standard time and DST would lock into DST permanently.
What changes if the bill becomes law
The most visible change: you would never change your clocks again. But the practical effects go deeper than that. Your winter mornings would be darker, and your winter evenings would be lighter.
Take New York City as an example. Under the current system, sunrise in late December happens around 7:20 AM standard time. Under permanent DST, that same December sunrise would not happen until 8:20 AM. Children would walk to school in the dark. Morning commuters would drive in twilight for an extra hour.
On the flip side, sunset in late December would shift from 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM. That extra hour of evening daylight is the main argument supporters make for the change. More evening light means fewer traffic accidents, less seasonal depression, and more time for outdoor activities after work.
The Senate still needs to act
The House vote is just the first step. The Senate has not yet taken up the measure, and Senate procedure allows a single senator to block unanimous consent, which is how the 2022 version of the bill died despite passing the Senate by voice vote.
President Trump has expressed support for permanent daylight saving time, so if the Senate passes the bill, a signature is likely. But Senate timing is uncertain. The bill could come up for a vote in the fall 2026 session, or it could wait until after the midterm elections.
How this affects time zone tools
If the bill passes, the IANA Time Zone Database (tzdata) would need to update the rules for US time zones. Currently, the database encodes the March-November DST switch for zones like America/New_York and America/Los_Angeles. A permanent DST change would require new rules indicating that these zones observe a fixed UTC offset year-round.
This is not a small change for software. Calendar apps, scheduling tools, flight booking systems, and anything that computes time zone offsets would need the updated tzdata. Operating systems typically ship tzdata updates within weeks of an IANA release, but older devices and servers that do not update regularly could display incorrect times.
The World Clock on this site uses your browser's built-in Intl API, which reads tzdata from your operating system. So once your OS updates, the World Clock will reflect the new rules automatically. No manual adjustment needed.
The history of DST in the US
Daylight saving time was first adopted in the US during World War I, following Germany's lead in 1916. The idea was to save energy by reducing the need for artificial lighting in the evening. The US repealed it after the war, brought it back during World War II, and then left it to states to decide until the Uniform Time Act of 1966 standardized the start and end dates.
The current March-to-November schedule was set by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which extended DST by four weeks starting in 2007. Before that, DST ran from April to October.
Arguments on both sides
- Permanent DST supporters point to studies showing reduced traffic accidents, lower energy use, and less seasonal depression when evening daylight extends further into the winter months.
- Permanent standard time supporters argue that darker winter mornings are dangerous for children walking to school and morning drivers. They also cite sleep science, which says standard time aligns better with natural circadian rhythms.
- Some sleep researchers prefer permanent standard time over permanent DST, because standard time puts solar noon closer to clock noon, which is what the human body expects.
The last time the US tried permanent DST was in 1974, during the oil crisis. Public support was high initially but dropped sharply after a winter of dark mornings and reports of children being hit by cars in the dark. The experiment lasted 10 months before Congress repealed it.
What you should do now
Nothing changes yet. The bill still needs Senate approval and a presidential signature. Until then, the current DST schedule remains in effect: clocks spring forward on the second Sunday of March and fall back on the first Sunday of November.
If you want to check when DST starts and ends in your region, use our DST Information page. It shows the exact dates for the US, Europe, Australia, and other regions, along with the current DST status for each timezone.