A bill to keep New Jersey on daylight saving time all year now awaits the full state Senate, but federal law does not allow the change unless Congress acts.
New Jersey's clocks went back an hour at 2 a.m. Sunday. A bill in the state Senate would end the switching by keeping New Jersey on daylight saving time all year, but only if Congress changes federal law first.
The return to standard time trades an hour of evening light for an hour in the morning, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The Senate bill, S3236, would change nothing on its own. Even if both houses pass it and the governor signs it, New Jersey would move to year-round daylight time only on the first Sunday in November after federal law allows it, the bill's text says. A second bill, S293, would keep the state on standard time all year instead, and it would not need permission from Congress.
Sen. Shirley K. Turner (D, 15th District), the Senate President Pro Tempore, and Senate President Nicholas P. Scutari (D, 22nd) are the prime sponsors of S3236, and Sens. Troy Singleton (D, 7th) and Angela V. McKnight (D, 31st) are co-sponsors, according to the Legislature's bill record.
The New Jersey Senate's State Government, Wagering, Tourism and Historic Preservation Committee voted 4-0 on Oct. 15 to send it to the full Senate, the committee's roll call shows.
The findings in S3236 say changing the clocks twice a year takes a toll on residents' health and safety and on business. They point to a 2013 study in The American Journal of Cardiology that examined heart attack risk after the time shifts.
A 2016 road-safety study they cite found that sleep lost to the spring change caused more than 30 deaths in fatal car crashes. That study covered 2002 through 2011.
A 2004 Rutgers study, also cited, said year-round daylight time would mean 171 fewer pedestrian deaths a year. It put the drop in deaths of people riding in vehicles at 195 a year.
New Jersey's clock law still names April and October
The state's clock law sets different dates from the ones New Jersey follows. Under it, daylight time begins on the last Sunday in April and lasts until the last Sunday in October, with clocks changing at 2 a.m. each time. The Legislature last amended the law in 1955, the official statute text shows.
Federal law sets the schedule instead. Congress adopted the current federal calendar in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. It runs from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November and replaced a schedule that began the first Sunday in April and ended the last Sunday in October.
The federal statute overrides state laws with different changeover dates, so New Jersey clocks follow it.
S3236 would rewrite that law, striking the April and October dates and putting New Jersey on Eastern Daylight Time all year.
Federal law allows standard time all year, but not daylight time
If the whole state keeps standard time year-round, federal law lets New Jersey stop changing its clocks, because the state falls within a single time zone.
Federal law does not permit daylight time all year, the sponsors and the Senate committee each noted in their statements on S3236.
Hawaii and Arizona do not observe daylight saving time, though the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona does, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa do not observe it either. The institute notes that the U.S. Department of Transportation regulates time zones and daylight time.
The U.S. House voted in July to stop the change nationwide
In Washington, the U.S. House passed the Sunshine Protection Act on July 14 of this year, 308 to 117. According to its text, the bill would repeal the federal March-to-November schedule and move each time zone's standard time an hour ahead, so the seasonal shift would stop. States that already exempt themselves from daylight time could pick either the new standard time or the old one.
"Today, the House took an important step toward ending the outdated practice of changing our clocks twice a year by passing my bipartisan Sunshine Protection Act," U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R, FL-16), the bill's sponsor, said in a statement that day.
Republicans backed the bill 193 to 22, the House Clerk's roll call shows. Democrats voted 114 to 95 in favor, and one independent member also voted yes.
Among New Jersey's House members, Donald Norcross (D, NJ-01), Christopher H. Smith (R, NJ-04), Thomas H. Kean Jr. (R, NJ-07) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D, NJ-12) voted no, according to the same record.
The rest of the delegation voted yes: Jefferson Van Drew (R, NJ-02), Herbert C. Conaway Jr. (D, NJ-03), Josh Gottheimer (D, NJ-05), Frank Pallone Jr. (D, NJ-06), Rob Menendez (D, NJ-08), Nellie Pou (D, NJ-09), LaMonica McIver (D, NJ-10) and Analilia Mejia (D, NJ-11).
The U.S. Senate received the bill July 15 and sent it to its Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which has not acted on it, according to Congress's online record for the bill. The bill would have to pass the Senate and become law before this Congress ends in January. Otherwise, it would need to be filed again in the next Congress.
S. 29, the Senate's version of the bill, went to the same committee on Jan. 7, 2025, and its record shows no further action.
A version of the bill has cleared one chamber before. The U.S. Senate passed an earlier Sunshine Protection Act by unanimous consent in March 2022, but the House never voted on it, and the bill died when that Congress ended in January 2023. This time, the House has passed the bill and the Senate has not taken it up.
The Trenton bill's record runs back to 2019
The Legislature's records trace S3236 to a version Turner introduced in May 2019.
The State Government committee approved the next version 4-1 in 2021 and the one after it 5-0 in 2022. The Senate Transportation Committee approved a later version 6-0 in 2025.
None of the versions approved in 2021, 2022 and 2025 came to a vote of the full Senate before the end of its two-year session. A bill that does not pass in its session dies, and a sponsor who wants to try again must file it under a new number, according to the Legislature.
In the Assembly, the identical bill, A1703, has been in the Assembly State and Local Government Committee since Jan. 13 with no vote. Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D, 15th) and Assemblyman Anthony S. Verrelli (D, 15th) are its prime sponsors.
Turner also sponsors S293, which would keep New Jersey on standard time all year. It would take effect immediately, or on the first Sunday in November if it became law during daylight time, its text says.
That bill's findings cite the American Academy of Sleep Medicine's call to end seasonal clock changes nationwide in favor of one fixed time all year. They also say standard time lines up best with the body's natural rhythm. The bill has been in the Senate State Government committee since Jan. 13 without a vote.
S3236 goes next to the full Senate, where it can be taken up until this two-year session ends. The federal bill remains with the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee. Under federal law, clocks move ahead again at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March.
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Sources
House Energy and Commerce Committee, "House Passes Legislation to Make Daylight Saving Time Permanent" (July 14, 2026)
National Archives, U.S. Constitution, 20th Amendment (accessed Oct. 31, 2026)
National Institute of Standards and Technology, "Daylight Saving Time Rules" (Feb. 9, 2026)
New Jersey Legislature, Bill No. S1510, "Establishes permanent daylight saving time in NJ" (Jan. 9, 2024)
New Jersey Legislature, Bill No. S293, "Establishes permanent standard time in NJ" (Jan. 13, 2026)
New Jersey Legislature, Bill No. S3236, "Establishes permanent daylight saving time in NJ" (Feb. 2, 2026); companion Bill No. A1703
New Jersey Legislature, Bill No. S3781, "Establishes permanent daylight saving time in NJ" (May 20, 2019)
New Jersey Legislature, Bill No. S420, "Establishes permanent daylight saving time in NJ" (Jan. 14, 2020)
New Jersey Legislature, Bill No. S946, "Establishes permanent daylight saving time in NJ" (Jan. 31, 2022)
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New Jersey Legislature, N.J.S.A. 1:1-2.3, state standard time law (accessed Oct. 31, 2026)
New Jersey Legislature, Our Legislature (accessed Oct. 31, 2026)
New Jersey Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism and Historic Preservation Committee, statement to Senate Bill No. 3236 (Oct. 15, 2026)
U.S. Code, 15 U.S.C. 260a, "Advancement of time or changeover dates" (2024 edition)
U.S. Congress, H.R. 139, "Sunshine Protection Act of 2025," bill text and status (accessed Oct. 31, 2026)
U.S. Congress, S. 29, "Sunshine Protection Act of 2025," bill status (accessed Oct. 31, 2026)
U.S. Congress, S. 623, "Sunshine Protection Act of 2021," bill status (March 15, 2022)
U.S. Government Publishing Office, "House Practice: A Guide to the Rules, Precedents, and Procedures of the House" (2024)
U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk, member list (accessed Oct. 31, 2026)
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