Daylight Saving Time moves clocks forward one hour each spring and back each fall to extend evening daylight. Nevada has followed the practice since the 1960s under the federal Uniform Time Act of 1966, which sets a national schedule while letting states opt out and stay on standard time year-round. There are two main ways to stop the twice-yearly clock changes: make daylight saving permanent, which keeps the summer clock (later sunsets) all year, or end daylight saving, which keeps the winter clock (earlier sunrises) all year.
Assemblymember Selena La Rue Hatch (D-Washoe) pre-filed Assembly Bill 40 to exempt Nevada from federal Daylight Saving Time rules and keep the state on Pacific Standard Time year-round. Under permanent standard time, winter mornings would be brighter for schools and commutes, while evenings in places like Las Vegas and Reno would grow dark earlier.
The measure follows Assembly Bill 81 from 2025, also sponsored by La Rue Hatch. That bill passed the Assembly 27-15 but stalled in the Senate. Earlier proposals included a 2021 effort for permanent daylight time and resolutions urging Congress to allow it. States can choose permanent standard time without federal approval, as Arizona and Hawaii do, but cannot lock in daylight time on their own.
=President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for ending the twice-yearly clock changes and supports making daylight saving time permanent through the Sunshine Protection Act, which passed the House in 2025 but remains stalled in the Senate. Supporters of the current system or permanent daylight time cite more evening light for recreation, outdoor activity, and commerce. Opponents, including many sleep and health researchers, point to risks from the spring shift such as increased heart attacks, strokes, and traffic accidents, and argue that permanent standard time better matches natural circadian rhythms. Studies have estimated the annual economic cost of the clock changes at hundreds of millions of dollars, driven largely by those higher rates of heart attacks, strokes, workplace injuries, and traffic accidents after the spring shift.
Benjamin Franklin is often credited with the idea after he wrote a satirical letter in 1784 suggesting people wake up earlier to save money on candles. The modern version of daylight saving time began during World War I to save energy. In the 1970s, during an energy crisis, the United States tried making daylight saving time permanent year-round. Public support quickly dropped because of dark winter mornings, and Congress ended the experiment within months.
Save Standard, a nonprofit advocating permanent standard time for health and safety reasons, is promoting AB40. The bill will first be considered when the Legislature convenes in February 2027. It would need to clear the Assembly, then the Senate, before reaching the governor for a signature.
