Time Zone Report

Following Daylight Saving Time legislation in the US

Time For Congress to Create “Forward Time”?

No state can currently enact legislation to go to Year-Round DST, because 15 USC Subsection IX “Standard Time” doesn’t permit it.  Congressional Research Service report (number 98-99C from February of 1998, available online here) titled “Daylight Saving Time” says:

Although it may exempt itself, if a state decides to observe DST, the dates of observance must comply with federal legislation.

And it is unlikely that Congress would enact legislation changing the time in any state, since the US Department of Transportation has oversight of time zones and monitors compliance with US Daylight Saving Time regulations.

What Congress can do is modify the relevant time zone regulations to permit a Year-Round DST, something we here at Time Zone Report are starting to call “Forward Time”. “Year-Round Daylight Saving Time” is long and easily confused with “part-time Daylight Saving Time.”

We think the designation “Forward Time” is simple enough, lends itself to use in time zone abbreviations EFT, CFT, MFT, and PFT, from east to west.  And easy enough to explain to young children, and your parents and grandparents.  “Grampa, Forward Time is where a state moves the clock forward an hour, and just leaves it there, with none of that spring-forward fall-back stuff you complain about every year.”

We’ll see if the states that want something like this can work together to get Congress to act.

Updated: January 23, 2015 — 10:27 am

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