Daylight saving time in 2023 ends on Sunday, Nov. 5, meaning we once again undergo the ritual of changing time and setting the clocks back one hour.

Wait. What about the law that was passed to make daylight saving time permanent? Why are we still falling back?

That answer is complicated and tied up with Congress.

READ MORE: When do we change clocks back for end of daylight saving time 2023?

In 2021, Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill that would put Alabama on DST year-round, becoming one of 19 states enacting legislation to do away with the time change. The problem is doing that will require Congressional action and, so far, that’s failed to receive bipartisan traction.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, along with other lawmakers, including Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville, reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act of 2023 earlier this year. The act, which in 2021 passed the Senate but languished in the House, would eliminate the changing of the clocks to standard time and move the U.S. on DST all year. The 2023 version has only made it as far as the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

“This ritual of changing time twice a year is stupid. Locking the clock has overwhelming bipartisan and popular support. This Congress, I hope that we can finally get this done,” Rubio said in a March statement.

If the bill does pass the Senate, it would require House approval and a presidential signature to become law.

If the Sunshine Protection Act had passed, DST would have become permanent starting Nov. 5 – the same day we’re scheduled to “fall back” and move clocks one hour. And, if nothing happens before, we will “spring forward” for the start of DST in the early morning hours of March 10, 2024.