CHARLOTTE AMALIE — Millions of Americans will lose an hour’s sleep this weekend — but not in the Virgin Islands.
Daylight saving time begins this weekend — at 2 a.m. Sunday — and most people in the mainland U.S. will set their clocks forward one hour.
The Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Marianas and most of Arizona — excluding the Navajo Indian territories — do not observe daylight saving time.
After the change, the time in the Virgin Islands, which is in the Atlantic Time Zone, will be the same as in the Eastern Time Zone in the United States. That means schedules for TV shows in the territory will be on Eastern Daylight Time instead of falling an hour behind.
Daylight saving time, which ends at 2 a.m. on November 6, was introduced in 2007.
Daylight Saving Time has a rich history in the U.S., including Tuesday, when a group of senators led by Florida’s Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, re-introduced the “Sunshine Protection Act,” which would eliminate Daylight Saving Time. The idea has bipartisan support and was passed by the Florida Legislature in 2018. However, such a change requires federal support and that doesn’t seem imminent.
Proponents of eliminating Daylight Saving Time contend it would help agriculture and tourism, reduce traffic accidents, and help improve health and fitness because there would be more daylight.
Opponents, including the Florida PTA, say schoolchildren would be waiting for school buses or walking to school in the dark.
There was no uniform national Daylight Saving Time policy from 1945 to 1966, which created problems nationwide. The Uniform Time Act of 1966, which was amended in 1986, developed a national policy.
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg is in charge of time zones and Daylight Saving Time for the United States.