Lawmaker wants Utah to abolish summer time

Utah lawmaker Jim Nielson wants to stop the use of daylight saving time in Utah.^[1] He says that changing the clocks twice a year disturbs children's sleep and is bad for elderly people and for people with disabilities such as autism.

The same idea came up in Utah in 2010, but it failed to pass for lack of strong enough arguments. Similar attempts in Colorado and Nebraska have not succeeded either.

The federal government lets each state decide whether to use daylight saving time. In the U.S., daylight saving time begins on the second Sunday of March and ends on the first Sunday of November. At the moment only two states, Hawaii and Arizona, stay on standard time all year.

Update, 26 October 2026: The bill (House Bill 199) failed in committee on 3 February 2012.^[2] In 2020 Utah passed a law (Senate Bill 59) to move to daylight saving time all year, but only after Congress allows it and at least four other western states do the same;^[3] that has not happened, so Utah still changes its clocks twice a year. See also: Utah didn't abandon daylight saving time in 2012.