FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, March 30, 1998
Contact: Bill Mosley
Tel.: (202) 366-5571
DOT 54-98

Most of the nation will return to daylight saving time at 2 a.m. Sunday, April 5, when clocks will be set ahead one hour. The change will provide an additional hour of daylight in the evening.

Under law, daylight saving time is observed from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. This fall, the nation will return to standard time starting Sunday, Oct. 25.

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 and American Samoa.

Congress, in the Uniform Time Act of 1966, established uniform dates for daylight saving time and transferred responsibility for the time laws to the Department of Transportation from the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater reminds Americans to change the batteries in their smoke detectors when they change the time on their clocks.