DOT
25-03
Monday, March 31, 2003
Contact: Bill Mosley
Tel.: (202)
366-5571
Daylight Saving Time Begins Sunday, April 6,
For Most Americans
Secretary Mineta Reminds Americans to Change Smoke Detector Batteries
Most
of the nation will return to daylight saving time at 2 a.m. Sunday, April 6,
when clocks will be set ahead one hour. The
change will provide an additional hour of daylight in the evening.
U.S.
Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta also reminds Americans to change the
batteries in their smoke detectors when they change the time on their clocks.
“When
changing your clocks, remember the old saying:
‘Spring forward, fall back,’” Secretary Mineta said.
“It’s also a good time to make sure your smoke alarm has a new
battery.”
Under law, daylight saving
time is observed from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October.
Next fall, the nation will return to standard time starting Sunday,
October 26.
The
federal law does not require any area to observe daylight saving time.
But if a state chooses to observe daylight time, it must follow the
starting and ending dates set by the law.
In
those parts of the country that do not observe daylight time, no resetting of
clocks is required. Those states
and territories include Arizona, Hawaii, the part of Indiana located in the
Eastern time zone, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the
Northern Marianas.
Daylight saving time is a change in the standard time of each time zone. Time zones were first used in the United States in 1883 by the railroads to standardize their schedules. In 1918, Congress made the railroad zones official under federal law and assigned the responsibility for any changes that might be needed to the Interstate Commerce Commission, then the only federal regulatory agency. In the Uniform Time Act of 1966, Congress established uniform dates for daylight saving time and transferred responsibility for the time laws to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
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