Daylight Saving: Clocks fall back Nov. 1 as Senate stalls on permanent shift

Michigan residents will reset their clocks this weekend as the country's annual shift back to standard time arrives under a federal schedule set in 1966.

Daylight Saving Time ends Nov. 1. At 2 a.m. Sunday, clocks turn back one hour to 1 a.m., adding an hour of morning light and subtracting it from the evening. Federal law sets the change for the first Sunday in November, with the spring forward occurring on the second Sunday in March.

The Sunshine Protection Act would end the twice yearly clock changes by keeping daylight saving time permanently. The bill passed the U.S. House on July 14 by a 308-117 vote and would let states opt out of the permanent shift. The Senate did not bring it to a vote before recessing, and senators return after the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

Daylight Saving Time began in the U.S. in 1918 during World War I, when backers argued that shifting clocks an hour could free up coal-fired electricity for military use. The practice was enacted again during World War II and repealed after the war, after which some states and cities kept the shift while others stayed on standard time, so short drives could cross time boundaries. Airlines and other businesses pushed Congress to resolve the patchwork, producing the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which codified daylight saving time with later modifications.

Forty8 states observe Daylight Saving Time. Hawaii and Arizona do not, though the Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona does. American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands also keep standard time year-round.

The Senate's next opportunity to consider the legislation comes after the midterm elections on Nov. 3.