President Donald Trump is demanding the Senate end the twice-yearly clock changes. House GOP leaders have joined him to pressure their Senate counterparts into action. The House already passed the Sunshine Protection Act with a strong bipartisan vote of 308 to 117. This bill aims to make daylight saving time permanent across the nation.
Majority Leader Steve Scalise told Fox News Digital that there is no reason for Americans to lose sunlight. He claimed that Americans have no justification for losing an hour of daylight at day’s end, since extended light hours benefit families, boost business activity, and enhance community safety. Scalise called the change a commonsense fix that the Senate must now handle.
President Trump posted on Truth Social that the current clock process is ridiculous. He wrote that it costs the country a fortune and harms crime rates and sports. The president noted that this system creates stress for people in every sector of life.
The legislation is currently stalled in the Senate despite the House action. Majority Leader John Thune told Politico that there is no clear path forward right now. This delay has created a rift between Trump and the Senate GOP majority leadership.
Trump targeted Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas as the primary critic blocking the bill. “Almost everybody wants ‘The Sunshine Protection Act’ to pass, except for Tom Cotton,” Trump said on Saturday. He even shared the senator’s cell phone number for the public to use.
Trump urged Arkansans to contact their senator about this issue. “To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself,” he posted. Cotton responded by noting that Congress has tried this before and rolled it back.
The senator argued that permanent daylight saving time caused absurdly late sunrises in winter. “Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first,” Cotton said on X. He emphasized that he will always prioritize the safety of children in his state.
House leaders expect the Senate to eventually take up the measure. Scalise said he does not expect Senator Cotton’s opposition to change soon. “Look, obviously, Tom has very strong feelings, he’s made those known both publicly and within the conference, so I don’t expect that to change,” Scalise noted.
Other lawmakers support the move based on local sentiment. An official remarked that, clearly, the people of Alabama have largely indicated their support for the measure. The debate over changing clocks has raged for decades in Washington.
Former President Richard Nixon once led a temporary trial of year-round daylight saving time. That experiment ended six months early due to mounting public frustration.
