Former President Trump has expressed his support for a legislative proposal aimed at putting an end to the biannual Daylight Saving Time adjustments, following its strong bipartisan approval from a House committee.
The Sunshine Protection Act cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday with an overwhelming 48-1 vote, aiming to make Daylight Saving Time a permanent fixture.
The initiative has garnered significant backing in the House, with an impressive 32 bipartisan lawmakers sponsoring the bill. A parallel effort in the Senate has also received support from 18 cosponsors across party lines.
Trump took to TruthSocial to voice his opinion, stating, “It’s time that people can stop worrying about the ‘Clock,’ not to mention all of the work and money that is spent on this ridiculous, twice yearly production.”
He further emphasized, “This is so important in that Hundreds of Millions of Dollars are spent every year by people, Cities, and States, being forced to change their Clocks. Many of these Clocks are located in Towers, and the cost of renting, or using, Heavy Equipment to do this twice a year is prohibitive!”
The proposal is part of a broader transportation bill and seeks to abolish standard time completely. This means that the clocks would remain set an hour ahead permanently, eliminating the annual fall-back adjustment to standard time each autumn.
That would generally lead to an hour or more of sunlight at the end of each day — which proponents argue would help both public safety and economic productivity.
But that would also mean winter sunrises could come extremely late in some places — with daylight coming as late as 8 a.m. or 9 a.m.
Critics also argue permanent daylight savings hours would go against the human body’s natural sleep cycle — where dark evenings induce sleep and bright mornings awaken.
Some health experts say making standard time permanent would more closely follow those rhythms.
It is unclear who cast the single “Nay” in Thursday’s vote, but Rep. Nanette Barragan (D-CA.) raised arguments about the health impacts of permanent daylight savings time, the Hill reported.
Any changes still have a long way to go before becoming a reality, however, with Thursday’s successful vote just the first step in the process.
The bill still needs pass the full US House, and then the Senate from there to come into law.
The switch has been proposed every year since 2018, with Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) regularly proposing it with bi-partisan support — though it has never been able to pass. It briefly passed under President Nixon in 1974, but was repealed the same year by President Ford.
That’s even with the president’s ongoing support, which he doubled down on this time around.
“I am going to work very hard to see The Sunshine Protection Act signed into Law,” Trump wrote Thursday.
“We are going with the far more popular alternative, Saving Daylight, which gives you a longer, brighter Day — And who can be against that — This is an easy one!”
