Daylight Saving Time begins on Sunday morning. The best practice on that is to set your clocks forward one hour before you go to bed on Saturday. We’ll be on Daylight Savings Time until Nov. 3.
This year legislation in Washington state and Alaska could make it more interesting when time comes for the “fall back” process in November.
Washington state senators have proposed a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent in that state, so it would be on just one time all year long. Senate Bill 5139 says that if not authorized by Congress, the state will seek approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation to change Washington to year-round mountain standard time.
That would put Alaska two hours off of Seattle time for most of the year. In winter, when it’s noon in Alaska, it would be 2 pm in Seattle. But during Daylight Saving Time, from March until November, Alaska would be one hour off of Seattle and the rest of Washington State.
A bill presented by Rep. George Rauscher would fix the seasonal confusion by putting Alaska permanently on Alaska Standard Time. In that scenario, Alaska would be two hours off of Washington’s proposed Mountain Time all year.
Rauscher’s House Bill 43 would have the State petition the U.S. Department of Transportation to initiate proceedings under the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which would include public hearings on changing the time zone boundaries, putting Alaska permanently on Alaska Standard Time.
The bill was referred to House State Affairs Committee on Feb. 22.
