Back in business.
I think pretty much everybody can agree that we all hate the practice of switching our clocks back and forth twice a year for Daylight Savings Time. Gaining an extra hour of sleep in the fall is nice, but I hate when it gets dark at 4 PM. And then losing an hour in the spring always sucks, but it’s worth it to me to get that extra hour of daylight in the evenings.
The discussion of whether we should end the practice of clock switching always comes up twice a year, but it seems like over the past few years there’s been a bigger push to do away with Daylight Savings Time and make one time or the other permanent.
Back in 2021, the United States Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act, which would have made Daylight Savings Time permanent, but the bill ultimately died in the House of Representatives. But during his 2024 presidential campaign, President Donald Trump expressed his support for ending the practice of switching our clocks, and deciding on one time to make permanent year round.
Of course the debate is always over whether to make Daylight Savings Time permanent, or whether we should just stick to Standard Time. And while there’s plenty of support for doing away with switching between the two, there hasn’t really been a consensus on which one should be made permanent – and as a result, we’ve been stuck going back and forth.
When asked a couple weeks ago whether he still supported ending the practice, Trump seemed to back off his earlier push, citing the divide over which one to make permanent:
“This should be the easiest one of all. It’s a 50/50 issue, and if something is a 50/50 issue, it’s hard to get excited about it. I assume people would like to have more light later, but some people want to have more light earlier because they don’t want to take their kids to school in the dark.
It’s a little bit one way, but it’s very much a 50/50 issue. It’s something I can do, but a lot of people like it one way. A lot of people like it the other way. It’s very even. And usually when I find that’s the case, what else do we have to do?”
POTUS on Daylight Savings: "It's a 50/50 issue and if something is a 50/50 issue, it's hard to get excited about it. I assume people would like to have more light later, but some people want to have more light earlier because they don't want to take their kids to school in the… pic.twitter.com/ytn6C0AMRS
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 6, 2025
But Congress hasn’t given up on the issue, and yesterday they held a hearing featuring witnesses on both sides of the debate, both those who supported permanent Daylight Savings Time like the CEO of the National Golf Course Owners Association, and those who support staying on Standard time year round, like a physician and professor of neurology who testified on behalf of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
While the panel didn’t endorse which one to make permanent, it seems that there was broad agreement that they needed to decide on one or the other. And today, President Trump decided that he was once again interested in solving the issue once and for all – and he let us know which solution he endorsed.
In a post to his Truth Social platform, the president called on the House and Senate to make Daylight Savings Time permanent, meaning more sunshine in the evenings:
The House and Senate should push hard for more Daylight at the end of a day. Very popular and, most importantly, no more changing of the clocks, a big inconvenience and, for our government, A VERY COSTLY EVENT!!! DJT
Donald Trump Truth Social 04/11/25 09:52 AM
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) April 11, 2025
Want more hours in the evening to golf, eh? Whatever it takes to make it happen.
With Trump making his preference known, maybe that will help break the logjam between the two sides and get the House and the Senate moving on the issue.
I’m firmly in the “make Daylight Savings Time the permanent time” camp, so I’m pumped that Trump is pushing for the same thing. I just hope Congress can finally get it done once and for all. I’ll happily give up that extra hour of sleep in the fall if it means it doesn’t get dark at 4 PM anymore.
