Uniform Time Act
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The Uniform Time Act of 1966, , was a
Law of the United States The law of the United States comprises many levels of Codification (law), codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the nation's Constitution of the United States, Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the ...
to "promote the adoption and observance of uniform time within the standard time zones" prescribed by the Standard Time Act of 1918. Its intended effect was to simplify the official pattern of where and when
daylight saving time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typicall ...
(DST) is applied within the U.S. Prior to this law, each
state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...
had its own scheme for when DST would begin and end, and in some cases, which parts of the state should use it.


History

The law, as originally written, required states that observe DST to begin it at 2 a.m. local time on the last Sunday in April, and to end it at 2 a.m. local time on the last Sunday in October and explicitly preempted all state laws related to daylight saving time per the
weights and measures A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a quantity, defined and adopted by convention or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same kind of quantity. Any other quantity of that kind can be expressed as a multip ...
power given to Congress in Article 1, Section 8 of the
U.S. Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...
. In 1972, the act was amended to allow states with more than one timezone to exempt only one timezone from DST, in addition to exempting the whole state.An Act to amend the Uniform Time Act to allow an option in the adoption of advanced time in certain cases. The law was later amended again in 1986 to move the uniform start date for DST to the first Sunday in April (effective 1987). The latest amendment, part of the
Energy Policy Act of 2005 The Energy Policy Act of 2005 () is a federal law signed by President George W. Bush on August 8, 2005, at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The act, described by proponents as an attempt to combat growing energy problems ...
, extends DST by four or five weeks by moving the uniform start date for DST to the second Sunday in March and the end date to the first Sunday in November (effective 2007). The
Department of Energy A Ministry of Energy or Department of Energy is a government department in some countries that typically oversees the production of fuel and electricity; in the United States, however, it manages nuclear weapons development and conducts energy-rel ...
was required to report to Congress the impact of the DST extension by December 1, 2007 (nine months after the statute took effect). The report, released in October 2008, reported a nationwide electricity savings of 0.03% for the year of 2007.


Specifications

The law does not require that all states observe DST. Individual states may exempt themselves from DST and observe standard time year-round by passing a state law, provided: * if the state lies entirely within a
time zone A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, Commerce, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between Country, countries and their Administrative division, subdivisions instead of ...
, that the exemption apply statewide, or * if the state is divided by a time zone boundary, that the exemption apply statewide or to the entire part of the state on one side of the boundary.


Non-observers

The state of
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
has never observed daylight saving, even during World War II when "War Time" was observed by other states as an energy saving measure. Observance of daylight saving varied by county in
Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
, which is divided by the Eastern/Central time zone boundary, until April 2, 2006, when the entire state once again observed DST, a first since Congress repealed the Standard Time Act of 1918. The commonwealths of the
Northern Mariana Islands The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI; ch, Sankattan Siha Na Islas Mariånas; cal, Commonwealth Téél Falúw kka Efáng llól Marianas), is an unincorporated territory and commonw ...
and
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
and the territories of
American Samoa American Samoa ( sm, Amerika Sāmoa, ; also ' or ') is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the island country of Samoa. Its location is centered on . It is east of the International ...
,
Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...
, and U.S. Virgin Islands also do not observe Daylight Saving Time. Arizona has not observed daylight saving since the year following the enactment of the Uniform Time Act of 1966. Native American nations within Arizona may choose. The
Navajo Nation The Navajo Nation ( nv, Naabeehó Bináhásdzo), also known as Navajoland, is a Native American reservation in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah; at roughly , the ...
has chosen to use daylight saving throughout its territory, which includes parts of
New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
and
Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
where daylight saving is observed. The
Hopi The Hopi are a Native American ethnic group who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census, there are 19,338 Hopi in the country. The Hopi Tribe is a sovereign nation within the Unite ...
Nation, with territory surrounded entirely by the Arizona portion of the Navajo Nation, has chosen not to observe daylight saving.


See also

* 1918 Standard Time Act *
Time in Indiana The U.S. state of Indiana is divided between Eastern and Central time zones. The official dividing line has generally moved progressively west from its original location on the Indiana–Ohio border, to a position dividing Indiana down the middl ...
*
Time in Arizona Time in Arizona, as in all U.S. states, is regulated by the United States Department of Transportation as well as by state and tribal law. All of Arizona is in the Mountain Time Zone. Since 1968, most of the state—with exceptions noted below ...


References

{{Time in the United States 1966 in law 89th United States Congress United States federal energy legislation Daylight saving time in the United States