Donald Trump renewed pressure on Senate Republicans as permanent time observation in the United States faces a likely delay, even as daylight saving time ends early Sunday and much of the country turns the clocks back an hour. The Senate is unlikely to act before the end of the year on the House-passed bill that would make daylight saving time permanent.
Trump Pushes Senate Republicans
Trump wrote this week on Truth Social that the United States Senate is letting the Daylight Saving Bill die, when a vast Majority of the Country want it. Earlier this month, he also posted Tom Cotton's personal cellphone number on social media and ordered him to “GET IT DONE!”
Tom Cotton, a Senate Republican from Arkansas, opposed the bill by pointing to prior attempts to keep daylight saving time in place. He said, “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changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter.”
Mike Rounds and Senate resistance
Several other Republicans, particularly those from some Northern states, also oppose the bill. Mike Rounds said, “You’d be sending kids to school in the dark,” while Todd Young said it is his understanding that the House bill is a “non-starter” for Senate Republican leaders. Bernie Moreno said it would be premature to say the bill will pass the Senate anytime soon.
John Thune has not weighed in publicly on the House-passed bill, though he has voted against similar versions in the past. The bill would make daylight saving time the permanent national standard, and supporters argue it would provide more daylight during the afternoon, when Americans are most active.
1973 and the House bill
The opposition also has history behind it. 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a law instituting permanent daylight saving time for what was supposed to be a trial period, and by that October it was repealed after public support sharply dropped.
For commuters and schoolchildren in states with later winter sunrises, the practical effect is the part senators keep returning to: mornings could start in darkness, with some places not seeing the sun until after 9 a.m. With the Senate unlikely to take up the House bill before the end of the year, the debate now turns on how many Senate Republicans are still willing to back it after the Nov. 3 midterm election.
