ASHEBORO N.C. – Daylight Saving Time starts this Sunday as most of the country ‘springs forward’ for the annual trade where we all lose an hour of sleep, in exchange for more daylight in the coming spring and summer months.
When Does the Time Change
Daylight Saving Time starts on Sunday, March 10th, 2024, at 2 a.m. As clocks ‘spring forward’ 2 a.m. becomes 3 a.m.
Daylight saving time for 2024 will end on Sunday, November 3, 2024, 2:00 a.m.
According to a poll by the Assoicated Press in 2021, “Forty-three percent want to stay on standard time year-round, while 32% prefer to see the clocks remain on daylight saving time. Only 25% percent like the existing state of affairs in most of the country, shifting back and forth between daylight saving time in the summer and standard time in the winter.”
Wasn’t North Carolina going to make DST permanent?
The state of North Carolina has tried twice to do away with the changing of the clocks, once in 2019 and most recently in 2021. A bill titled “NC Time Zone/Observe DST All Year” would have made Daylight Saving Time permanent (year-round) in our state. That bill was referred to the Committee on Rules and Operations of the Senate on February 2nd, 2021, where it essentially died.
The proposed state legislation would not have gone into effect if passed because while the federal government allows states to remain on standard time, staying on DST requires approval from congress.
Annual Check-In on the Sunshine Protection Act
At the federal level, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has introduced the Sunshine Protection Act every year since 2018. According to a press release, “Senator Rubio’s Sunshine Protection Act would eliminate the changing of clocks to standard time for those four months. In sum, if enacted, we would not “fall back” in November and would enjoy a full year of DST, instead of only eight months.”
“This ritual of changing time twice a year is stupid. Locking the clock has overwhelming bipartisan and popular support. This Congress, I hope that we can finally get this done,” said Rubio in a statement this year.
The most recent version of the bill, the Sunshine Protection Act of 2023, was introduced on March 1st, 2023, where it was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, where it remains as of the time this article was published.
The closest the bill ever got to passing was in 2022 when the Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent. However, no version of the bill has passed the House.