This week, the House of Representatives voted to make daylight saving time permanent year-round. But it still has to pass through the Senate and be signed by President Trump to become law.
As of July 16, we will still be resetting our clocks to fall back in November.
Here’s what to know about the House vote to make daylight saving time permanent, when daylight saving time is set to end in 2026 and the history behind the time change.
Is daylight saving time going to be permanent?
Not yet.
After almost one and a half years in committee, the Sunshine Protection Act was voted on and approved by the House of Representatives on July 14, allowing states to make daylight saving time permanent.
The legislation now must be passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Trump, who has long supported making daylight saving time permanent.
H.R. 139, known as the Sunshine Protection Act, was filed Jan. 3, 2025, by Rep. Vern Buchanan, Florida-District 16. Buchanan has brought the Sunshine Protection Act before each Congress since 2018.
The Sunshine Protection Act would make daylight saving time the new, permanent standard time in the United States and would allow states to opt out to stay on standard time.
When does the time change? When we fall back in 2026
Daylight saving time for 2026 started on Sunday, March 8, at 2 a.m., when clocks sprang forward an hour, to 3 a.m.
Daylight saving time for 2026 ends on Sunday, Nov. 1, at 2 a.m., when clocks will fall back an hour to 1 a.m. Sunrise and sunset will be about an hour earlier on Nov. 1 than the day before, meaning there will be more light in the morning and less light in the evening.
Daylight saving time countdown clock
What does DST stand for? Is it daylight saving or daylight savings?
“DST” is an abbreviation for daylight saving time.
Many people pluralize the phrase to say “daylight savings time.” The correct way to spell and say it is the singular version of the phrase: daylight saving time.
Why do we have daylight saving time? What to know about DST origins
Although the earliest known proposal to “save” daylight came from Benjamin Franklin’s “An Economical Project” in 1784, he is not the reason we observe the time change today.
According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the first true proponent of daylight saving time was a London builder named William Willet, who “noticed that the shutters of houses were tightly closed even though the sun had risen” while he was riding his horse on an early morning in 1907.
“Willet spent a small fortune lobbying businessmen, members of Parliament, and the U.S. Congress to put clocks ahead 20 minutes on each of the four Sundays in April and reverse the process on consecutive Sundays in September. But his proposal was met mostly with ridicule,” the almanac says.
It wasn’t until World War I that countries started adopting the concept to conserve fuel and resources. The Germans were the first to adopt the system in 1915, Britain followed in 1916 and the U.S. started observing the time change in 1918, when Congress passed its “Standard Time Act” that established time zones.
“Many Americans viewed the practice as an absurd attempt to make late sleepers get up early. Others thought following ‘clock time’ was unnatural instead of ‘sun time.’ A columnist in the Saturday Evening Post offered this alternative: “Why not ‘save summer’ by having June begin at the end of February?” according to the almanac.
“The matter took on new meaning in April 1917, when President Woodrow Wilson declared war. Suddenly, energy conservation was paramount, and several efforts were launched to enlist public support for changing the clocks.”
A common daylight saving time misconception is that it was created to help farmers have more daylight hours to complete their work outdoors. But the opposite is actually true.
At the time daylight saving time was adopted in the U.S. — during World War I — farmers were the strongest opponents of this time change. They didn’t like having to do their early morning farm chores in the dark.
“Many Americans wrongly point to farmers as the driving force behind daylight saving time. In fact, farmers were its strongest opponents and, as a group, stubbornly resisted the change from the beginning,” according to the almanac.
“When the war ended, the farmers and working-class people who had held their tongues began speaking out. They demanded an end to daylight saving time, claiming it benefited only office workers and the leisure class. The controversy spotlighted the growing gap between rural and urban dwellers.”
Lianna Norman and Cheryl McCloud are trending reporters for the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida, covering lotteries, weather, Florida wildlife, breaking news and more. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at https://floridatoday.com/newsletters.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: When will daylight saving time end in 2026? When we fall back
Reporting by Lianna Norman and Cheryl McCloud, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Florida Today
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Lianna Norman and Cheryl McCloud, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida | USA TODAY Network
