Most Americans gained an hour of sleep on Sunday, November 1, 2026, when clocks fell back at 2 a.m. local time. Daylight saving time returns on Sunday, March 14, 2027.

This year felt different because Congress came closer than ever to ending the switch. On July 14, 2026, the House passed the Sunshine Protection Act (H.R. 139), which would make daylight saving time permanent, by a vote of 308 to 117.

How the vote split

  • Republicans: 193 yes, 22 no.
  • Democrats: 114 yes, 95 no.
  • One independent voted yes.

Why the clocks changed anyway

A bill needs to pass both chambers and be signed by the president. After the House vote, the Sunshine Protection Act went to the Senate, where it has not received a vote. Until it does, the current federal rules stay in place.

This has happened before. In March 2022, the Senate passed a version of the same bill by unanimous consent, but the House never voted on it and it expired.

The rules today

  • Since 2007, daylight saving time runs from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, under the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
  • States may opt out and stay on standard time all year. Hawaii and most of Arizona do.
  • States may not adopt permanent daylight saving time on their own. That takes an act of Congress.

What happens next

If the Senate does not pass H.R. 139 before the current Congress ends in early January 2027, the bill dies and would have to be introduced again in the new Congress.

How the US ended up changing clocks

Daylight saving time first came to the United States in 1918, during World War I, as a way to save fuel. It was so unpopular that Congress repealed it the following year, and for decades towns and states set their own rules. By the 1960s the patchwork was chaotic: a single bus route could cross several time changes. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 brought order by setting national start and end dates while letting states opt out entirely. The dates were later extended, most recently by the 2005 law that created today’s March-to-November schedule.

America tried permanent daylight time once

During the 1973 energy crisis, Congress put the country on year-round daylight saving time starting in January 1974. Support was high at first and collapsed within months. Winter sunrises in many places came after 8 a.m., and there were widespread worries about children going to school in the dark. Congress reversed course, and the experiment ended that fall. Opponents of the current bill point to that episode as a warning.

The argument over which time to keep

Almost everyone agrees that switching twice a year is a nuisance. The disagreement is over which time should become permanent.

  • Permanent daylight time keeps lighter evenings all year, which supporters say helps retailers, outdoor activities and evening road safety. The cost is very dark winter mornings, especially in the northern and western edges of each time zone.
  • Permanent standard time keeps mornings lighter, which many sleep scientists favor. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has argued that standard time better matches the body’s natural clock. The cost is summer sunsets an hour earlier than people are used to.

Many state legislatures have passed laws or resolutions supporting permanent daylight time, but those laws only take effect if Congress allows it, so for now they change nothing.

What we think

The House vote shows how popular ending the clock change has become, but it skipped the hard part. A permanent choice means darker winter mornings or earlier summer sunsets, and the 1974 experience shows how quickly public opinion can turn. Until the Senate settles that question, Americans should expect the same debate every March and November.