Massachusetts clocks fall back one hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday, November 1, 2026. That is still the law, even though the U.S. House voted in July to end the twice-a-year clock change. The bill passed 308 to 117 on July 14 and has been sitting in a Senate committee ever since, according to the official record at Congress.gov.
Why can’t Massachusetts just stop changing its clocks on its own? Because federal law lets a state do only one thing about daylight saving time, and it is the opposite of what most people who want to stop switching are asking for. Here is how the law works, what the House bill would actually do, and what Massachusetts has already studied.
The federal law: 15 U.S.C. § 260a
Clock changes are set by the Uniform Time Act of 1966. Section 3 of that law, codified at 15 U.S.C. § 260a, says that from 2 a.m. on the second Sunday of March until 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of November, “the standard time of each zone … shall be advanced one hour.”
The same section gives states one way out:
- “[A]ny State that lies entirely within one time zone may by law exempt itself from the provisions of this subsection providing for the advancement of time, but only if that law provides that the entire State … shall observe the standard time otherwise applicable during that period.”
In other words, a state may choose permanent standard time, never springing forward. It may not choose permanent daylight time. Congress made that explicit: § 260a(b) says it is “the express intent of Congress by this section to supersede any and all laws of the States … insofar as they may now or hereafter provide for advances in time or changeover dates different from those specified in this section.”
For Massachusetts, permanent standard time would mean winter hours all year, with summer sunrises before 4:15 a.m. in Boston and sunsets around 7:30 p.m. at the height of summer. That is why few people here push for it, and why the debate has focused on Congress.
The Sunshine Protection Act: what passed the House
H.R. 139, the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025, was introduced by Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida on January 3, 2025. Congress.gov shows the House passed it on July 14, 2026 by a recorded vote of 308 to 117, and the Senate received it on July 15 and referred it to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. As of this writing, that is the latest action.
As introduced, the bill would:
- Repeal the clock change. It repeals section 3 of the Uniform Time Act, 15 U.S.C. § 260a, entirely.
- Move every time zone one hour. Rather than declaring daylight time permanent, it rewrites the Calder Act, 15 U.S.C. § 261, so that each zone’s standard time is one hour closer to Coordinated Universal Time. Eastern time would become four hours behind UTC year-round, which is the same as today’s Eastern Daylight Time.
- Protect states that already opted out. A state that had exempted itself from daylight saving time before the bill’s enactment could keep either the new standard time or its old one. Massachusetts has never exempted itself, so it would move to the new, later clock.
We read the introduced text. The version that passed the House may contain changes; the passed text was not yet posted on Congress.gov when we checked.
What permanent daylight time would mean in Massachusetts
- Later winter sunsets. Instead of darkness around 4:15 p.m. in Boston in December, sunset would come around 5:15 p.m.
- Much later winter sunrises. The sun would not rise until after 8 a.m. for much of the winter, which is why school start times are part of every serious discussion of the change.
- No spring or fall switch. No lost hour in March, no extra hour in November.
Massachusetts already studied this
In 2017, a special state commission chaired by then-state Sen. Eileen Donoghue studied moving Massachusetts to the Atlantic Time Zone, one hour ahead of Eastern. Because federal law allows states only to opt out of daylight saving time, Atlantic Standard Time year-round would have produced the same clock as permanent Eastern Daylight Time, using the one exemption the law allows.
The commission’s draft concluded that Massachusetts could benefit from the shift, but recommended that the state “never consider changing time zones unless most or all of its neighbors are doing the same,” CBS Boston and the Associated Press reported at the time. It also recommended later school start times so young children would not go to school in the dark. “There’s got to be a critical mass,” Donoghue said. No change was made.
So what happens this year
- Fall back on November 1. Unless the Senate passes the bill and the president signs it before then, clocks in Massachusetts go back one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday, November 1, 2026.
- Spring forward on March 14, 2027. The second Sunday of March.
- If the bill becomes law. The question becomes its effective date and whether the Senate changes the text. Watch the Senate Commerce Committee.
Frequently asked questions
When do clocks fall back in Massachusetts in 2026?
At 2 a.m. on Sunday, November 1, 2026, under 15 U.S.C. 260a, which ends daylight saving time on the first Sunday of November.
Did Congress make daylight saving time permanent?
Not yet. The House passed the Sunshine Protection Act, H.R. 139, 308 to 117 on July 14, 2026. The Senate referred it to committee on July 15 and has not acted on it.
Can Massachusetts stop changing the clocks on its own?
Only by adopting permanent standard time. Federal law lets a state exempt itself from daylight saving time, but not adopt daylight time year-round, and it expressly overrides state laws that set different clock changes.
Would Massachusetts move to Atlantic time?
A 2017 state commission said it could make sense only if most or all of its neighbors did the same, and with later school start times. Nothing has been done since.
Sources: 15 U.S.C. 260a read at the Legal Information Institute; H.R. 139 (119th Congress) text as introduced and the bill’s action history read at Congress.gov; CBS Boston/Associated Press, September 20, 2017, on the Massachusetts special commission’s draft report. Sunrise and sunset times are approximate. General information about the law, not legal advice.