Sure, our leaves don’t change color that much and we don’t get cooler weather as much as we do “slightly-less-hot” weather, but fall has arrived in Florida and residents ask the question they ask every year:

Daylight saving time? Didn’t we end that already?

Twice a year, most Americans adjust their clocks forward an hour in the spring and back an hour in the fall to align our days with the changing sunlight hours. Many people consider it an aggravating practice that at least initially disrupts sleeping habits.

While many Americans want to end the time changes (referred to by some as “lock the clock”), opinions are mixed on which time to stick with, daylight saving or standard time.

It’s an important question, since one of them requires an act of Congress, but the other can be done whenever a state makes the decision.

Florida is among the nearly 40 states that want to make daylight saving time permanent. Why hasn’t it happened yet?

The states can’t make that call until the federal government does, and movement there has been sluggish for almost a decade.

Here’s what to know.

When does daylight saving time 2025 end?

Daylight saving time, by federal mandate, begins on the second Sunday in March and ends the first Sunday in November.

This year, daylight saving time started Sunday, March 9, at 2 a.m. local time, when most states moved their clocks forward one hour.

It will end Sunday, Nov. 2, at 2 a.m. local time, when clocks are moved back one hour.

Countdown to end of daylight saving time 2025When did daylight saving time start?

Daylight saving time was established in 1918 with the Standard Time Act, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Astronomical Applications Department. It was intended to maximize daylight hours to help save on energy during World War II (and not to help farmers, as a persistent myth suggests). But it was still largely optional.

Congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966 to establish a uniform daylight saving time throughout the U.S., requiring states that observe daylight saving time to follow the federally-mandated start and end dates. But it still allowed states and territories to opt out, provided they stuck to standard time.

Some did. Hawaii, Arizona except the Navajo Reservation, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands all remain on standard time.

What’s the difference between daylight saving time and standard time?

Daylight saving time means later sunrises and sunsets, which means more time for outdoor activities after work or in the evenings and more light for evening traffic but potentially darker mornings for commuters and school children.

Standard time means earlier sunrises and sunsets, which some argue increases safety in the mornings for school children and is more in line with our biological circadian rhythms.

“The medical and scientific communities are unified … that permanent standard time is better for human health,” said Erik Herzog, a professor of biology and neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis and the former president of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the American Medical Association, and the National Sleep Foundation have all urged for a change to year-round standard time.

Many business and tourism interests have lobbied for a permanent daylight saving time to maximize shopping and recreation hours.

Didn’t Florida opt out of daylight changing time?

Not quite. The state wants to lock the clock, but on daylight saving time. In 2018, Florida became the first state to enact legislation to stay on daylight saving time all year round.

The Florida Legislature approved HB 1013, the Sunshine Protection Act, with a vote of 103 to 11 in the House and 33 to P2 in the Florida Senate with a vote of 33 to 2. Sen. Rick Scott, who was the Florida governor at the time, signed it.

And there it stopped, because permanent daylight saving time requires the repeal of the federal mandate.

What is the US Sunshine Protection Act? Is it law?

The Sunshine Protection Act of 2025 would make daylight saving time permanent across the nation.

When he was a senator, State Secretary Marco Rubio introduced or co-introduced some version of the Sunshine Protection Act in every Congress since 2018. The closest it came was in 2022 when it passed unanimously in the Senate but did not pass the House as former Speaker Nancy Pelosi never brought it up for a vote. In all the other years, it died in committee.

The Sunshine Protection Act was re-introduced in 2025:

Both versions were referred to committees in January with no movement since.

Do Americans want to end daylight saving time?

Mostly. But while most Americans are in favor of ending the practice, they seem to be divided on which time to pick.

A YouGov poll conducted in March 2023 asked respondents if they wanted to stop changing their clocks twice a year. 62% said they wanted to stop changing their clocks twice a year, 21% said they didn’t, and 17% weren’t sure. But, when asked which time to make permanent:

50% want permanent daylight-saving time

31% want permanent standard time

12% didn’t have a preference

Which states want permanent daylight saving time?

So far, nearly 40 states have passed or tried to pass laws or resolutions trying to make daylight saving time a year-round thing, with no twice-a-year clock changes: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Some of the legislation would make the state’s change contingent on whether neighboring states also make the switch.

Some states have worked on legislation to make standard time permanent: Arkansas, California, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, according to CBS 8.

At least 20 states have seen proposed bills from different legislators for both times. Some states such as Missouri and Utah introducted legislation to move to standard time unless Congress lets daylight saving time become permanent, and they’d move to that one.

And a few such as Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island have attempted to join a new time zone entirely: Atlantic Standard Time, which is used in the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It’s one hour ahead of Eastern Standard Time.

Could Florida stay on standard time all year?

Sure. That doesn’t require congressional approval, the state just has to pass a law and notify the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“The state would just need to let DOT and the rest of the world know that they no longer observe DST, if that is the decision,” the DOT said in an email.

What has President Trump said about ending daylight saving time?

In 2019, during his first term, President Donald Trump supported the push for permanent daylight saving time, saying in a tweet it was “O.K. with me!” according to Politico

In 2024, after he was re-elected, he said he would work to end daylight saving time and move the country to standard time.

“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!” Trump posted in December on his social media site, Truth Social “Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.”

Two months after getting sworn in, he said it was a toss-up.

“This should be the easiest one of all, but it’s a 50-50 issue. If something’s a 50-50 issue, it’s hard to get excited. I assume people would like to have more light later, but some people want to have more light earlier, because they don’t want to take their kids to school in the dark,” Trump said in March, according to Reuters. “A lot of people like it one way, a lot of people like it the other way, it’s very even. And usually I find when that’s the case − what else do we have to?”

In April, he said again the House and Senate should push for permanent daylight saving time.

Has the United States ever tried year-round daylight saving time?

Yes, in 1974 under President Richard Nixon during the fuel crisis.

Just a few months into the planned two-year experiment, Congress voted to go back to the twice-a-year change after complaints of children going to school in the dark on winter mornings and indications of increased traffic accidents, the New York Times reported.

Poll: Should Congress make daylight saving time permanent?Is it daylight saving time or Daylight Savings Time?

It’s daylight saving time, no s and no capital letters.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Daylight saving time ending soon. Will it ever end permanently?