The United States National Hurricane Center's official advisories typically report AST and UTC when tracking storms in the Caribbean that threaten the U.S., which may confuse the mainland public not familiar with the time zone designation (although AST is equivalent to Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) for most of the Atlantic hurricane season).

Virtually all of this region is west of the theoretical western border of the zone at 67.5°W; only a small part of Maine lies east of that meridian.

[5] In May 2017, the Maine Senate approved a change to AST, on the condition that there would be a referendum, and that Massachusetts and New Hampshire decided to make the same switch.

[6][8] In 2018, Florida enacted into law the "Sunshine Protection Act", under which the state would observe daylight saving time year-round.

[10] On March 15, 2022, the United States Senate voted unanimously to advance a federal version of the "Sunshine Protection" legislation from Florida, also called the "Sunshine Protection Act", to the United States House of Representatives;[11] the bill was not brought to a vote in the House.