While most of the U.S. prepares to “spring forward” for daylight saving time, two states and five territories remain on standard time year-round—a decision rooted in climate, geography, and decades of legislative debate that has profound implications for software scheduling, travel logistics, and the ongoing national fight over permanent time.
The Official List of Non-Observers
The U.S. Department of Transportation, which governs the nation’s time zones, confirms that only two states and five U.S. territories do not observe the biannual clock change mandated for the rest of the country. This creates a persistent patchwork of timekeeping that complicates everything from national broadcast schedules to distributed software deployments.
- Arizona (with the notable exception of the Navajo Nation)
- Hawaii
- American Samoa
- Guam
- Northern Mariana Islands
- Puerto Rico
- U.S. Virgin Islands
This division is not arbitrary. It is the result of specific federal statutes and state-level decisions dating back to the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which granted states the power to exempt themselves from daylight saving time but explicitly forbade them from adopting permanent daylight saving time without an act of Congress.
Climate and Geography: The Foundational Arguments
The reasons for exemption are deeply practical, centered on local environment and daily life.
Arizona’s Heat-Driven Decision: The state formally opted out in 1968. The primary driver was its extreme desert climate. As reported by CBS affiliate KOLD, staying on standard time means the sun sets earlier during the scorching summer months. Advancing the clock would push sunset later, keeping residents active in dangerous afternoon heat and increasing residential energy consumption for cooling. This perspective was echoed at a 2022 congressional hearing by Arizona Rep. Debbie Lesko, who noted that many of her constituents’ jobs, like roofing and highway construction, force them to work at night to avoid daytime heat. Any disruption to this established pattern would have “consequences that may… people from the East Coast may not think about.”
Hawaii’s Equatorial Stability: Hawaii opted out in 1967. The state’s position near the equator means its daylight hours vary very little throughout the year. As Hawaii News Now (KGMB) reports, state officials determined there was no practical benefit to shifting schedules to account for a seasonal change in daylight that barely exists. The disruption to social and business routines was seen as an unnecessary cost with no corresponding gain.
The Navajo Nation Exception: The Navajo Nation, which spans Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico, does observe daylight saving time. This creates a unique “time island” within non-observing Arizona, requiring intra-state coordination for businesses and services operating across tribal and state lines.
A Nation Weary of the Switch
Public sentiment strongly favors an end to the clock-changing routine. A 2022 CBS News/YouGov poll found that nearly 80% of Americans support changing the current system. The preference was split: 46% favored permanent daylight saving time, while 33% wanted to abolish daylight saving time entirely and remain on standard time.
This public frustration has ignited a wave of legislative activity at both state and federal levels, though the central problem remains: Congress holds the ultimate key to change.
State-Level Efforts
States are legislating for a future that depends on federal approval. Colorado passed a 2022 law establishing year-round daylight saving time, but the bill is explicitly contingent on Congress first amending federal law to permit it. Similarly, in 2023, Massachusetts held hearings on competing bills—one for permanent daylight saving and another for permanent standard time. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) reintroduced the “Sunshine Protection Act” in the House, which would delegate the choice to states. He argues the twice-yearly change is an “unnecessary and outdated nuisance” and that permanent daylight saving “could have tremendous benefits for the economy and people’s health.”
The Federal Stalemate
The Senate has passed versions of the Sunshine Protection Act multiple times (in 2022, 2023, and 2025), but the bills have consistently stalled in the House committee stage. The political calculus is complicated by regional preferences; Southern and Western states generally favor permanent daylight saving, while Northeastern states often advocate for permanent standard time to avoid extremely late winter sunrises.
President Donald Trump’s position has been inconsistent. Before his second term, he posted on Truth Social in December 2024 stating the GOP would work to “eliminate Daylight Saving Time.” However, in prior years, he has expressed support for making daylight saving time permanent. This vacillation mirrors the broader national debate.
Why This Matters for Developers and Users Now
The current DST patchwork is not a benign curiosity; it is a persistent source of technical debt and user friction.
- Software & Data Integrity: Calendar applications, scheduling software, financial trading systems, and distributed databases must constantly handle complex time zone conversions. A meeting scheduled for 2 PM EST in New York (during EST) corresponds to a different absolute UTC time than the same meeting in Arizona during the same period. This leads to bugs, missed appointments, and data synchronization errors that are expensive to debug.
- Travel & Communication: Real-time logistics, flight tracking apps, and cross-timezone collaboration tools must build in exceptions for Arizona and Hawaii, increasing code complexity. A simple “call at 3 PM local time” becomes a conditional logic problem.
- User Experience Confusion: The twice-yearly clock change is a well-documented source of missed deadlines, sleep disruption, and physiological stress. For users in non-observing territories, they face a secondary confusion: explaining their time zone to colleagues and services in the other 48 states twice a year.
- Market Fragmentation: Companies operating nationwide must decide whether to standardize on a single “corporate time” or adapt interfaces to local observance. This decision impacts everything from customer support hours to live event streaming schedules.
The legislative inertia at the federal level means this technical and social burden will persist indefinitely. Developers must continue to build for a fractured temporal landscape, and users will continue to bear the cognitive and physical costs of the switch.
The debate over daylight saving time is more than a policy dispute; it’s a live case study in how federalism, climate, and technology intersect. The states and territories that remain on standard time provide a permanent, real-world experiment in alternative timekeeping. Their existence proves that the national twice-yearly change is a choice, not a necessity, and highlights the profound regional differences that a one-size-fits-all time policy cannot resolve. Until Congress acts, the U.S. will remain a nation living on two different time clocks—one that changes, and one that doesn’t.
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