House GOP leaders are pressing the Senate to advance the Sunshine Protection Act after President Donald Trump renewed his push to make Daylight Saving Time permanent. Steve Scalise said Americans should not lose an hour of sunlight at the end of the day, and the fight now turns on whether the Senate will move the bill.
Scalise said, “there's no reason Americans should lose an hour of sunlight at the end of the day when more daylight means more time with our families, more activity for our businesses, and safer communities.” He also said, “President Trump has been pushing to make daylight saving time permanent, and House Republicans delivered by overwhelmingly passing the Sunshine Protection Act. It's a commonsense change and the Senate should take it up,” tying the House vote to the next step in the process.
House vote in July
The House passed the Sunshine Protection Act in a bipartisan 308 to 117 vote in July. That vote cleared one chamber, but the proposal still needs Senate action before the clock change would end nationwide. For people who want a permanent schedule, the practical question is whether the Senate will put the bill on its agenda and move it forward.
Trump targets the clock change
Trump posted on Truth Social Friday that the clock changing process happens twice a year and called it “A ridiculous Clock changing process that takes place twice a year, costs our Country a fortune, is bad for Crime, stress on people, Sports, and just about everything else you can imagine.” On Saturday, he targeted Tom Cotton, shared the senator's cell phone number, and said, “Almost everybody wants ‘The Sunshine Protection Act’ to pass, except for Tom Cotton,” before asking people in Arkansas to contact their senator.
John Thune sees no path
John Thune told Politico there was “no clear path forward,” which leaves the Senate as the bottleneck. The contrast is sharp: House Republicans describe the bill as a commonsense change, while the Senate leader is signaling that the votes or procedure needed to advance it are not in place.
The issue has surfaced before. Richard Nixon's administration led the country through a temporary 16-month trial of year-round daylight saving, and mounting public frustration forced the experiment to end six months early. This time, the immediate answer depends on whether the Senate takes up the Sunshine Protection Act soon enough for the House vote to matter.
