President Trump criticized senators for failing to approve legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent, joking that the twice-yearly clock change has even caused him to arrive late.
Speaking to supporters Monday in Corinth, Mississippi, the president called the ritual “stupid” and said “many, many Americans are deeply disappointed” that lawmakers have allowed the proposal to stall.
“The House has already passed a bill five times to make daylight saving permanent. The Senate needs to take a vote,” Trump said before recounting an occasion when he was late to a meeting.
“I’m always late. I had a big meeting and I was an hour late.”
Trump said “everyone hates” changing the clocks and urged senators to “vote [clock-changing] out” in favor of sticking to a single time year-round.
“No more changing the clock,” he said.
Trump said the Sunshine Protection Act remains “locked” in the Senate, although the House approved the measure by a 308-117 vote.
“Daylight saving time will end as scheduled to the disappointment of many, many Americans,” Trump said.
The president has long opposed switching between standard time and daylight saving time. On Sunday, he accused the Senate of “letting the Daylight Saving Bill die.”
He has also previously blamed Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton for blocking the legislation, increasing pressure on lawmakers to act.
Under current law, daylight saving time will end on the morning of Nov. 1—a prospect that has clearly frustrated the president.
Making daylight saving time permanent would extend sunlight into the afternoon and evening hours throughout the year.
Cotton, however, has shown no sign of changing his position despite Trump’s demands. The Arkansas Republican has pledged to “always oppose” the proposal.
“For many Arkansans, permanent Daylight Savings Time would mean the sun wouldn’t rise until after 8:00 or even 8:30 a.m. during the dead of winter. Three months out of the year, kids in towns like Bentonville, Fayetteville, and Fort Smith would start school ahead of the sun,” Cotton said.
“Meanwhile, construction workers, farmers, and others who rise before the sun or need daylight to work would be penalized.”
“These workers might go three, four, even five hours in the morning without seeing the sun, which would hurt their quality of life and potentially their safety in the workplace.”
Cotton acknowledged that changing the clocks can harm health, but said the strongest evidence indicates that the body’s natural rhythms are more closely aligned with standard time than with daylight saving time.
Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines has likewise warned that lawmakers in the western United States could oppose making daylight saving time permanent.
“I can see where Florida likes it for tee times at certain times of the year, but it doesn’t work so well for moms and dads putting kids on buses when the sunrise in Western Montana wouldn’t be until 9:30 in the morning. It’s not going to work for us,” he told CNN in July.
He joked the bill wouldn’t “see the light of day.”
