Senate is skeptical about making daylight saving time permanent despite
Trump's pressure
[October 30, 2026]
By MARY CLARE JALONICK
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is unlikely to act before the end of the
year on a House-passed bill that would make daylight saving time
permanent, defying President Donald Trump and dashing the hopes of
Americans who don’t like having to change their clocks twice a year.
As daylight saving time ends early Sunday and much of the country turns
the clocks back an hour, several senators are holding up legislation
that would eliminate the longtime U.S. practice. Supporters argue that
ending the time change would provide more daylight during the afternoon,
when Americans are most active, but opponents say commuters in some
states wouldn’t see the sun until after 9 a.m.
“No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted
permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it
each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the
winter,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
Cotton, a member of GOP leadership, is the most vocal opponent of the
change, notably drawing Trump’s ire earlier this month when the
Republican president posted his personal cellphone number on social
media and ordered him to “GET IT DONE!” But Cotton is not the only
senator blocking the legislation, which would make daylight saving time
the permanent national standard.
Several other Republicans, particularly those from some Northern states
that would see much later sunrises, say they also oppose it.
“You’d be sending kids to school in the dark,” said South Dakota Sen.
Mike Rounds.
Trump’s pressure campaign hasn’t worked
Trump has aggressively pushed the change, putting pressure on Senate
Republicans to pass the House bill and send it to his desk. In the posts
targeting Cotton earlier this month, Trump wrote that sunshine is better
in the afternoon than the morning and “CRIMINALS DON’T LIKE WORKING IN
THE LIGHT."
He renewed his call in a social media post this week, writing on Truth
Social that “United States Senate is letting the Daylight Saving Bill
die, when a vast Majority of the Country want it.”
An avid golfer, Trump has made clear that adding daylight hours would
mean more time to hit the links. He has argued that changing the time
can be dangerous, especially when “you have high and dangerous steeples
to reach, like on churches and municipal buildings.”
Even as many Americans now rely on digital clocks that change on their
own, Trump said that “nobody wants to spend their precious time running
all over the place, turning Clocks back twice a year."
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The president’s arguments don’t appear to have changed many votes in
the Senate, however. Cotton has doubled down in response to Trump's
pressure, and several Republicans predicted in recent weeks that the
bill won’t come up for a vote in the short time left when the Senate
returns to Washington after the Nov. 3 midterm election.
Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., said that it’s his understanding that the
House bill is a “non-starter” for Senate Republican leaders.
Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio was even more blunt when asked
this month if he thinks the bill will pass the Senate anytime soon.
“No way,” Moreno said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., hasn’t weighed in
publicly on the House bill, but he has voted against similar
versions in the past.
Previous laws have been repealed
In the winter of 1973, amid an energy crisis, Congress passed a law
instituting permanent daylight saving time for what was supposed to
be a trial period. But it was repealed by that October as public
support had sharply dropped, partly because of concern for children
who were walking to school in the dark.
Now more than 50 years later, fewer Americans recall that
experiment. Like Trump, many want to ditch the twice-yearly time
change and add more daylight hours later in the day.
An AP-NORC poll last year found that only 12% of American adults
were in favor of the current system, while almost half opposed it.
Proponents of a single time include the American Medical Association
and American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
Florida Sen. Rick Scott signed legislation when he was governor in
2018 that would allow the state to remain on daylight saving time
year round, pending federal approval. Now in the Senate, the
Republican has led efforts to make that happen.
“I hear from Americans constantly that they are sick and tired of
changing their clocks twice a year — it’s an unnecessary,
decades-old practice that’s more of an annoyance to families than
benefit to them,” Scott said.
Several Democrats are on board, as well.
“The head-spinning ritual of falling back and springing forward has
a very real impact on our economy, our health, and our happiness,”
said Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, when Scott
introduced his own bill last year. “Let’s say goodbye to 4pm winter
sunsets.”
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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this
report.
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