Daylight saving time will start at 2 a.m. Sunday, March 10, when Four State residents will “spring forward” — moving their clocks ahead one hour.
Not long after, on March 19, the season changes and Spring will have officially “sprung.”
As we leave winter behind, many state legislatures would also like to leave behind time change altogether. The question is, If we stop changing our clocks back and forth each year, which way do we leave them?
Federal law currently allows states to “opt out” of daylight saving time (DST) and return to standard time. This would make the “fall back” section of the year (from November to March), the permanent year-round time.
The only two states to observe standard time year-round are Arizona and Hawaii, where residents there never adjust their clocks.
However, what federal law doesn’t allow states to do is make daylight saving time permanent.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures report on Daylight Saving Time — here is where the Four States stands regarding efforts to keep daylight saving time all year long (though Congress would need to act before states can make any official change).
ARKANSAS
In December 2022, State Representative Johnny Rye introduced a bill in the Arkansas House that would adopt year-round daylight saving time. But, nearly a month later in January of 2023, he withdrew the bill and recommended “its effects be studied by a committee on governmental affairs.”
In March 2023, State Representative Stephen Meeks introduced a bill to the Arkansas House to adopt standard time year-round, eliminating DST. However, the effort failed in the House.
KANSAS
The last time Kansas lawmakers put forward a daylight saving time bill was in 2019. That bill would have kept the state off DST, but the bill died in 2020.
In 2021, Kansas lawmakers went a different route by introducing House Bill 2060 , which would make DST permanent in the “Sunflower State.” HB 2060 died in May 2022.
Kansas lawmakers have also proposed moving to DST year-round, but those proposals have all failed.
MISSOURI
In 2021, lawmakers in Missouri proposed House Bill 848 that would have the Show-Me State permanently use daylight saving time, if three of eight bordering states follow suit. The Missouri House approved the plan, but the state Senate failed to vote on the measure before the session ended.
In 2023, there were two House bills under consideration that would make DST permanent: House Bill 157 and House Bill 265 — both of which failed.
Despite different versions of this bill making progress in past sessions, current members are not confident that DST will ended in Missouri this year.
According to a recent article in Columbia Missourian , Representative Darin Chappell, a Republican from Rogersville, and Representative Michael Burton, a Democrat from Lakeshire, both said there is little hope that the Missouri Senate will prioritize a bill like this during the current session.
OKLAHOMA
An Oklahoma bill to “lock the clock” and permanently establish daylight saving time in the state was more recently introduced by Senator Blake Stephens, a Republican from Tahlequah.
Senator Stephens authored Senate Bill 1200 , which would allow the state to stop changing clocks if a federal law allowing the time change is made. The bill advanced out of the state’s Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee in late February.
Like many states with similar bills going through the motions, this is not the first time the Oklahoma Legislature has considered a bill aiming to have a permanent DST. During last year’s legislative session, Senator Stephens co-authored a similar bill ( Senate Bill 7 ) that passed the state Senate but was never heard in the House.
Uniform Time Act
In 1966 Congress passed the Uniform Time Act — requiring state governments that choose to observe daylight saving time to begin and end the practice on federally determined dates.
“Under the Uniform Time Act, States may choose to exempt themselves from observing Daylight Saving Time by State law,” the U.S. Department of Transportation website reads . “States do not have the authority to choose to be on permanent Daylight Saving Time.”
This year’s DST will end at 2 a.m. Sunday, November 3.
