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By Marni Rose McFall
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This weekend, Americans will engage in the twice-yearly ritual of turning back the clocks.
On Sunday, November 1 at 2 a.m. local time, across most of the United States, daylight saving time (DST) will end with clocks moving back one hour as standard time returns.
President Donald Trump has pushed to end the practice, keeping the country on daylight saving all-year round, and there has been one of the most significant congressional efforts in years to change the system.
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This past July, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025, which would effectively establish DST year-round rather than returning to standard time each winter. However, it has not yet cleared the U.S. Senate.
The president has repeatedly pressed Republican senators to pass the legislation. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota said earlier this month that there is "no clear path forward or consensus" in the Senate, while lawmakers including Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton have raised concerns over the darker winter mornings that permanent DST would create.
"No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter. Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first," Cotton wrote in an X post earlier this month.
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Where Does the Sunshine Protection Act Stand?
The Sunshine Protection Act had already been introduced in Congress, but the 2025 version has made more progress than previous efforts.
On July 14, it was passed by a bipartisan 308-117 House vote and then made its way to the Senate's Commerce, Science and Transportation committee.
The bill would repeal the section of the Uniform Time Act governing the temporary annual daylight saving period and effectively advance U.S. standard time zones by one hour.
Practically, this would mean that most of the country would remain permanently on what Americans currently call DST rather than moving back and forth every spring and fall.
But there has been opposition, and at present, it seems unlikely that the Senate will act on it before the end of 2026.
What Has Trump Said About Daylight Saving Time
In August, Trump urged GOP senators in a Truth Social post to “PASS THE SUNSHINE PROTECTION ACT, ASAP,” and said that Americans are “sick and tired” of the “foolish, inconvenient and, in some cases very costly,” practice of changing their clocks.
In another Truth Social post that month, the president called on the Senate to pass the “NO MORE CHANGING THE CLOCKS ACT,” arguing that more daylight in the evening could help fight crime.
But despite the president putting pressure on the matter and saying earlier this year that he would “work very hard to see The Sunshine Protection Act signed into Law,” nothing will change before the upcoming clock switch on Sunday, and the practice will likely remain in play unless the legislation is passed and signed into law by the president.
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Why Ending Clock Changes Is Not the Same as Ending Daylight Saving Time
A source of confusion in the debate is that there are several different proposals that are often described as ending DST.
But there are actually three potential systems.
The current system: Most Americans observe standard time during winter, then move their clocks forward an hour for DST from March until November.
Permanent DST: The clocks would, in effect, remain on their summer setting throughout winter, with no “fall back” in November, meaning both sunrise and sunset would occur about an hour later during winter compared with the current system.
Permanent standard time: There would also be no clock changes, but the country would remain on its winter setting throughout the year, meaning summer sunrises and sunsets would therefore be about an hour earlier than under the current system.
Under the Sunshine Protection Act, the second option of permanent DST would be enacted. But there is an alternative proposal in Congress too.
The bipartisan Sunshine for Our Kids Act of 2026, H.R. 9638, introduced in July by Democratic Representative Mary Gay Scanlon and Republican Representative Pat Harrigan, takes the opposite approach essentially and would establish permanent standard time as the default.
The competing systems wouldn’t change how many of hours of sunlight are received in a day, but when available daylight occurs.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine favors eliminating seasonal clock changes but recommends permanent standard time, saying it aligns more closely with human circadian biology.
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Where Permanent Daylight Saving Plan Stands Two Months Before Clock Change
Can States Stop Changing Their Clocks Themselves?
Under the federal Uniform Time Act, states can exempt themselves from DST and remain on standard time throughout the year.
But states that choose to observe DST must follow the federally mandated start and end dates, and states currently cannot adopt permanent DST on their own.
Hawaii and most of Arizona use permanent standard time.
But states have still looked toward a possible change at the federal level.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 19 states have enacted measures providing for year-round DST if federal law is changed, sometimes with additional conditions involving neighboring states.
Those states are: Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
For Idaho and Oregon, the measures apply only to their Pacific Time areas.
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Will Americans Stop Changing Their Clocks Anytime Soon?
Not as of this weekend.
The majority of Americans should still be setting their clocks back one hour at 2 a.m. local time on November 1.
Despite momentum surrounding the proposal, the advancement has been held back by disputes that have complicated the issue for decades. The matter may well pick up momentum ahead of the clocks next being changed in the spring.
Newsweek*’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.* Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Anthony Murray and Daniel Orton.
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