Push for Permanent US Daylight Saving Time Frozen as Trump Says Americans Are Divided

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: US News and World Report/Reuters

March 6, 2025, at 6:52 p.m.


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A three-year congressional effort to make daylight saving time permanent in the United States appears to have halted, with President Donald Trump saying on Thursday that Americans are evenly divided over the issue. Daylight saving time - putting the clocks forward one hour during the summer half of the year to make the most of the longer evenings - has been in place in nearly all of the United States since the 1960s, but proponents have pushed to make it year-round.

In March 2022, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to make daylight saving time permanent but the effort stalled in the House of Representatives after lawmakers said they could not reach consensus. A bipartisan group of 16 senators in January made a new push to make daylight saving time permanent but Congress has held no hearings. Americans resume daylight saving time on Sunday.

Supporters of remaining on daylight saving time argue it would lead to brighter evenings and more economic activity during the winter months. Critics say it would force children to walk to school in darkness, since the measure would mean experiencing sunrise an hour later.

Trump in December said the Republican Party "will use its best efforts" to end daylight saving time, which he called "inconvenient, and very costly to our nation." But on Thursday he suggested no action was likely.

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2025-03-06/push-for-permanent-us-daylight-saving-time-frozen-as-trump-says-americans-are-divided

[Walleye]

1. "Evenly divided" is what he calls a mandate for himself

[MattNC2021]

2. Golf lobby doesn't want it

and they are very powerful.

[LeftInTX]

15. The golf lobby wants permanent DSL

[Oopsie Daisy]

3. One or the other... I prefer standard time, however. Just quit changing it back and forth!

[Vinca]

4. That's what he says today, but what will he say tomorrow?

[Attilatheblond]

29. It will be one more card he can play when something bad about him hits Page 1 and he is desperate for another diversion

[thesquanderer]

5. I'm surprised he doesn't say to leave it up to the states. (n/t)

[BumRushDaShow]

6. It is already pretty much up to the states

as you still have states like HI & AZ that don't change.

I remember a bunch of years ago when IN didn't observe daylight savings time and I was in Cincinnati, OH for a work-related conference where the conference was done by noon that Friday and I had time free in the afternoon before I would fly home the next morning. So I decided to hop on a Greyhound bus to briefly visit Indianapolis and then come right back on the next bus leaving there.

The trip was a couple hours but it was also a "time change" at the state border because at the time, OH was in EDT and IN was still EST. Had to carefully read the bus schedule so I didn't screw up.

[thesquanderer]

22. Apparently it's only half up to the states...

"If states do not want to change their clocks twice yearly, they can opt to remain on standard time permanently, as Arizona and Hawaii have opted to do. States cannot, however, opt for daylight saving time indefinitely. Twenty states have passed laws or resolutions to observe daylight saving time permanently, but these can only take effect if Congress were to change federal daylight saving time law. "

https://usafacts.org/articles/why-does-daylight-saving-time-exist/

[PSPS]

11. States are already free to change to permanent standard time, which is my preference.

[Rebl2]

25. That would be my choice

[Sequoia]

37. I don't think Indiana wants to.

That state used to have several time zones.

[Journeyman]

7. Settle on the half hour and be done with it . . .

[LeftInTX]

17. That's what they have in India and Iran!

Traveling to India must be confusing, because you can't add "X" hours. You add "X.5" hours. I think there is 10.5 hour difference? So when it is noon here, it's 10:30 pm in India.

[bdamomma]

8. Why

doesn't he do something else, and just leave the us and the world alone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Such a SF!!

[twodogsbarking]

9. In less than two days my car clock will be correct again.

[LeftInTX]

18. My watch will be correct!

I buy those cheap timex, which require a PhD to set. When I buy one, I set it for DST and leave it!

[turbinetree]

10. Fuck him ............someone has to tell him what time to grift off the taxpayers to speak with dictator Orban or Putin

and then off to the links............ at a million dollars a pop...............fucking treasonous asshole............

[AmericaUnderSiege]

12. The fact that he's not one of us means we're "divided." HAhahaha

He has:

* Never ridden a bus.

* Never shopped at a grocery store.

* Never spoken about the cost of a medical procedure.

* Never wondered where his next meal would come from.

* Never had to fight for rights against an employer.

* Never watched his children suffer because of an employer.

But he did bow out of military service because of "bone spurs," the hero.

[Bengus81]

13. Yeah....it's sooooo much work to change a couple of clocks twice a year

Man...how I wish that was my biggest problem right now.

More and more clocks have the time changes programed in. I have to change a stove and microwave clock which takes oh....10 seconds.

I like DST but it needs to start a month later in April. You have four months off and eight months on.

[alarimer]

14. It's a bad idea.

They tried this before and everyone hated it. This was in 1974. I don't remember it, but in Washington, DC, the sun didn't rise until 830 in January (now it would be an hour earlier). Injuries and accidents. It was a mess.

[BumRushDaShow]

16. "They tried this before and everyone hated it. This was in 1974. I don't remember it,"

I clearly remember it because I was in junior high and one of those kids walking to the train station to go to school every morning in the pitch dark with a flashlight at 7:30 am. The sun wasn't coming up until I got downtown after 8 am. This was before the sodium street lamps so the lighting was already poor.

I expect the northern tier of states, where there are long nights in winter, have made accommodations for that with more and better lighting, but any place south of there, not so much.

[LeftInTX]

19. I was a senior in HS.

Fortunately, I had a few late classes and avoided the bus as much as possible.

[Rebl2]

24. I remember

it. I was a junior in high school and waited in the dark for the bus. I hated it. High school kids do that today and I hate that for them.

[Attilatheblond]

30. Yep, the 'oil crisis' and idiots thought changing to DST would mean using less electricity

What a farce.

I did miss the Christmas lights that year though. Wrote a poem: Lights on the Hills of Ventura

[BigMike2028]

20. After this Sunday, let's keep the time change permanent.

After this Sunday, let's keep the time change permanent.

[BumRushDaShow]

21. No

because it will be PITCH BLACK here in the winter when kids are going to school in the morning.

[Attilatheblond]

32. People who have never lived far north just don't get it

Dark until nearly 9 AM in winter and light until nearly 11 at night. Hell to get kids to sleep at decent hour in May, the last month of school.

[BumRushDaShow]

33. Oh I get it as I've seen what it is like for places like Detroit

that are in the farthest western part of the Eastern time zone where in summer, the sun wasn't setting until almost 9:30 pm at night.

The thing is, since the northern tier areas are accustomed to that, they have ALSO adjusted their lighting for it. But in the mid-latitudes, not so much.

[Attilatheblond]

34. Lived not too far south of the 49th parrallel

Not much nighttime in summer. Not much sun in winter. DST really screws it all up

[BumRushDaShow]

35. Need to live near the equator like HI

with near-12 hour days & nights year round (and HI doesn't change anyway).

[Attilatheblond]

36. Nah, so pale I don't need lights at night. Shade/darkness are my friends

But dark walks to school are dangerous for kids.

[underpants]

28. I agree. We want Daylight Savings Time.

[Rebl2]

23. The US

tried that under President Nixon and Americans ended up hating it. In the winter the sun would not come up until 9am. No thank you.

[BumRushDaShow]

26. I remember well

with the flashlight going to school in the mornngs and the sun wasn't coming up here in Philly until after 8 am in January.

I am slowly seeing more and more medical professionals, after all these years, pushing back on this year-round DST crap because, as they note, it goes against the circadian rhythms of the body. It was mainly a "business" push.

AND IMHO, if we had to still do the twice a year thing, it needs to go BACK to April and October when the time changes were done closer to the spring and fall equinox weeks. They changed it to this idiotic current changeover time where it is DST for 8 months and ST for 4.

[Rebl2]

27. I agree

I was just telling my husband tonight it needs to go back to April and October. I think it was the third or fourth weekend of April and last weekend of October-always before Halloween. I think it was both of the Bushes that did this.

[BumRushDaShow]

31. Had to look up the exact year but it was a law from 2005 when they switched it

H.R.6 - Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Summary)

(PDF) - https://www.congress.gov/109/statute/STATUTE-119/STATUTE-119-Pg594.pdf

119 STAT. 615PUBLIC LAW 109–58—AUG. 8, 2005

(snip)

SEC. 110. DAYLIGHT SAVINGS.
(a) AMENDMENT.—Section 3(a) of the Uniform Time Act of 1966
(15 U.S.C. 260a(a)) is amended—
(1) by striking ‘‘first Sunday of April’’ and inserting ‘‘second
Sunday of March’’; and
(2) by striking ‘‘last Sunday of October’’ and inserting ‘‘first
Sunday of November’’.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Subsection (a) shall take effect 1 year
after the date of enactment of this Act or March 1, 2007, whichever
is later.
(c) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 9 months after the
effective date stated in subsection (b), the Secretary shall report
to Congress on the impact of this section on energy consumption
in the United States.
(d) RIGHT TO REVERT.—Congress retains the right to revert
the Daylight Saving Time back to the 2005 time schedules once
the Department study is complete.

It took effect in 2007.