The fight over daylight saving time is back in Washington, and this time President Donald Trump is publicly pressuring fellow Republicans to help end the twice-yearly clock change.
Despite broad frustration among Americans who reset their clocks every spring and fall, the push to make daylight saving time permanent has run into a stubborn Senate obstacle. Geography, more than party politics, has divided lawmakers over whether later evening sunlight is worth darker winter mornings.
The House passed legislation this summer that would allow states to voluntarily observe daylight saving time throughout the year. However, the proposal has stalled in the Senate, where lawmakers from several states warn that permanent daylight saving time could send children to school before sunrise.
Trump Pressures Cotton Over Daylight Saving Time
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has emerged as one of the strongest opponents of the proposal. He has pledged to block efforts to quickly move the legislation through the Senate.
Trump responded over the weekend by publicly turning up the pressure on Cotton. In a social media post, the president urged Arkansas voters to contact their senator and push him toward supporting the measure.
“Almost everybody wants “The Sunshine Protection Act” to pass, except for Tom Cotton,” Trump said.
“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.”
Cotton, however, has shown no sign of backing down.
The Arkansas Republican pointed to previous attempts by Congress to impose permanent daylight saving time, arguing that public support faded once Americans experienced the practical consequences during winter.
“No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Saving Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter,” Cotton said on X. “Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.”
Dark Winter Mornings Fuel Opposition
Cotton’s warning is rooted in history.
During the 1970s, lawmakers tried year-round daylight saving time. Yet enthusiasm quickly weakened as winter arrived and families faced extremely dark mornings. Parents were particularly concerned about children waiting for school buses before sunrise.
Congress eventually reversed the policy roughly a year later.
More recently, Cotton made a similar argument during a weekly closed-door Republican policy lunch after another senator raised the issue, according to a person familiar with the discussion. No lawmakers reportedly challenged his position during the meeting.
Still, the current debate does not break cleanly along Republican and Democratic lines. Instead, geography has become one of the strongest predictors of where senators stand.
Supporters Want An End To Changing Clocks
Some lawmakers argue Americans have endured the clock-changing ritual long enough.
Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., introduced a Senate version of the legislation last year. Supporters say permanent daylight saving time would provide more usable evening sunlight and eliminate the disruption caused by changing clocks twice each year.
Murray has argued that residents in Washington state particularly feel the loss of afternoon daylight during winter.
“Every year, more Americans grow more frustrated setting their clocks back and forth, and every winter folks in Washington state despair at the prospect of losing an hour of precious sunlight when we are forced off Daylight Saving Time,” Murray said in a statement at the time.
For states where winter sunsets arrive particularly early, that argument carries considerable appeal. However, lawmakers farther west within their time zones face a very different calculation.
Western Senators Warn About Late Sunrises
Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., are among lawmakers raising concerns about what permanent daylight saving time could mean for families in landlocked Western states.
Their central problem is simple: the sun could rise remarkably late during winter.
Daines argued in July that a policy attractive to residents in states such as Florida could create serious problems for parents and schoolchildren in Montana.
“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 till 9:30 in the morning. It’s not going to work for us,” Daines said in July.
That divide helps explain why an idea that sounds straightforward on paper has become difficult to move through Congress. Ending clock changes may be popular nationally, but the effects of permanent daylight saving time would vary sharply depending on where Americans live.
Senate Calendar Creates Another Major Obstacle
Even if supporters can bridge those geographic differences, they face another problem: time.
Floor time is among the Senate’s most valuable resources, and lawmakers are expected to return from the November midterm elections with a packed legislative agenda.
Major issues, including the National Defense Authorization Act, supplemental war funding and another looming government funding battle, could take priority. As a result, daylight saving time legislation may struggle to secure the attention needed for passage.
Republican leaders have also acknowledged that lawmakers cannot view the proposal as a simple nationwide question.
“Depends where you’re living in the country and the impact — what it would be, in your own home state,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said in July. “So it’s not as simple as what one state might like.”
For now, that may be the fundamental problem facing the daylight saving time push. Americans might broadly agree that changing clocks twice a year is irritating. Getting the entire country to agree on what should replace it is proving considerably harder.
