In 2018, California voters tired of changing their clocks twice each year approved Proposition 7, a ballot measure that was seen as a first step toward keeping the state on permanent daylight saving time.
Fast forward nearly three years and, yet again, Californians — like nearly everyone else in the country — are preparing for early nightfall when we fall back an hour on Sunday, Nov. 7.
Under Prop 7, the California Legislature could move to keep the state daylight saving time, provided it reached a two-thirds vote. Nearly 60% of voters — accounting for more than 7 million people — cast ballots in favor of the initiative.
So far, efforts to get rid of the twice yearly clock change remains in limbo in state Legislature. However, even if it passes, Congress would still need to take action first because of the Uniform Time Act.
Passed in 1966, the law stipulates that the federal government must approve any permanent switch to daylight saving time. But states are allowed to stay on standard time, as is the case with Hawaii and most of Arizona.
More states, however, are trying to stay on daylight saving time for the entire year. Aside from California, over a dozen U.S. states have approved similar laws, resolutions, or voter initiatives to do away with the biannual time change.
While states wait on the federal government, some members of Congress are working on the issue.
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators earlier this year introduced legislation to keep daylight saving time year-round. Still, that effort thus far has gone nowhere, with the Sunshine Protection Act remaining static since March.
Similarly, there’s been no movement on the House’s version to adopt daylight saving time as the permanent standard time since February.
With efforts stalled both in the state’s Legislature and in Congress, Californians — at least for now — will still have to “fall back” and “spring forward” at the appropriate intervals.
