Daylight saving time in the land of the midnight sun

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Spring forward left the country with one less hour of sleep, we have a status update on Alaska’s Daylight Saving legislation.

Representative Jamie Allard (R-Anchorage) introduced House Bill 41, another bill related to Daylight Saving Time. He introduced the bill this year.

Allard’s bill would make the state exempt from a bi-annual clock change until a congressional decision for daylight saving observance year-round. The bill is expected to be heard by the Senate community and regional affairs committee on March 11 at 1:30p.m.

In Alaska’s 32nd legislature in 2022, House Bill 31 – if enacted – would have moved the state to observe Daylight Saving time year-round. The bill would only have taken effect on the condition that congress amended federal law preventing the year-round recognition of daylight saving by 2030.

This condition is in reference to the Uniform Time Act, established in 1966, which according to the Department of Transportation, “establishes a system of uniform Daylight Saving Time throughout the Nation and its possessions, and provides that either Congress or the Secretary of Transportation can change a time-zone boundary.”

DOT states on their website section regarding the Uniform Time Act that overseeing time zones is assigned to DOT because of the importance of standardized times across many modes of transport. However, DOT only oversees the observance and does not have power to change Daylight Saving time.

“Under the Uniform Time Act, States may choose to exempt themselves from observing Daylight Saving Time by State law. States do not have the authority to choose to be on permanent Daylight Saving Time,” DOT writes.

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