Trump Pushes Senate to Pass Bill That Would Make Daylight Saving Time Permanent

President Trump used a Truth Social post over the weekend of August 15-16, 2026 to press the Senate to act on a bill that would end the twice-yearly clock change — by locking the country onto daylight saving time all year, not standard time. “More sun later in the day is better (including for fighting crime!),” he wrote, urging senators to “FINALLY, GET IT DONE!!” It was his second such push in four days; in a longer Truth Social appeal on Wednesday, August 13, he called the changes “foolish, inconvenient and, in some cases, very costly” and said they create anxiety about health.

The bill he’s talking about, the Sunshine Protection Act (H.R. 139), already cleared the House by a wide, bipartisan 308-117 vote on July 14, 2026. It now sits with the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. This isn’t the first time a version of the bill has gotten this far: in March 2022, the Senate passed an earlier version without objection, but it died without a House vote and never became law.

Key facts

Bill: Sunshine Protection Act (H.R. 139) — would make daylight saving time permanent and end the twice-yearly clock change.
House vote: passed 308-117 on July 14, 2026; now before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
Senate status: in summer recess until September 14, 2026; no Senate vote or committee debate is scheduled.
Next clock change: clocks are set to fall back on November 1, 2026, unless the Senate passes the bill and Trump signs it before then.
Public opinion: an AP-NORC poll of 1,289 U.S. adults (Oct. 9-13, 2025; margin of error +/- 3.8 percentage points) found 56% prefer year-round daylight saving time, 42% prefer year-round standard time, and 12% want to keep switching.
Precedent: the U.S. tried permanent daylight saving time in 1974; support fell from about 79% to 42% within months, and Congress reversed it that October.

What the bill actually changes

The bill would lock the country onto daylight saving time all year round — the clock most Americans already live under from spring through fall. That’s the opposite of what “permanent time” sounds like it might mean: it’s easy to assume the phrase means no more switching to the lighter clock in spring, but the bill goes the other way. Because it would repeal the seasonal switch back to standard time each November, clocks would stay on daylight saving time through the winter too: later sunsets year-round, but also later sunrises in winter. States or areas that already stick to standard time year-round, such as Hawaii and most of Arizona, would be able to keep doing so under the bill.

Where it stands

Nothing is scheduled. The Senate is in its summer recess and isn’t due back in Washington until September 14, 2026; no date has been set for a floor vote or committee debate on the bill. Available reporting doesn’t describe any procedural route that could force a floor vote if Senate leadership never schedules one. Trump’s demand is for action “as soon as possible,” not tied to any date. Clocks are still on track to fall back an hour on November 1, 2026 as usual this year. Skipping that switch would take two things happening first: the Senate passing the bill unchanged, and Trump signing it, both before November 1. Neither has happened, and no Senate vote or committee debate has been scheduled.

The opposition

Not every Republican is on board. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has voiced skepticism, pointing to how late winter sunrises would get in his state and questioning whether the bill can reach the 60 votes typically needed to overcome a Senate filibuster. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has repeatedly blocked earlier attempts to fast-track the bill without objection, arguing that permanent daylight saving time would leave schoolchildren and outdoor workers walking through dark winter mornings. Several senators — reportedly including Cotton — later said they would have objected to the March 2022 request to pass the bill without objection had they known it was happening.

What sleep doctors say

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine isn’t backing Trump’s preferred outcome. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s position statement — issued in October 2023 and endorsed by 20 medical, scientific and civic organizations — recommends the opposite fix: permanent standard time, not permanent daylight saving time. The group argues standard time better matches the body’s internal clock to natural light and reduces health and safety risks.

Trump’s case for it, and the pushback

Trump has argued that more evening daylight would help cut crime, reduce car accidents (including ones involving pedestrians), lower the risk of cardiac events, stroke and seasonal depression, and make it safer for children walking home from school. He has cited unspecified studies that the White House has not released. Outside research offers only partial support for the crime claim: some evidence points to lower evening robbery rates when there’s more daylight later in the day, but researchers have not found consistent evidence that it also reduces homicide rates. The research reviewed here does not address his other claims — car accidents, cardiac events, stroke, seasonal depression or child safety — one way or the other.

Do Americans actually want this?

The polling doesn’t give a clean answer either way. An AP-NORC poll of 1,289 U.S. adults conducted October 9-13, 2025 (margin of error +/- 3.8 percentage points) found just 12% favor keeping the current twice-yearly switch. Forced to pick one permanent option, 56% chose year-round daylight saving time and 42% chose year-round standard time — a preference, not a consensus.

It’s been tried before

This isn’t a new idea to Washington: the U.S. actually lived under permanent daylight saving time once, starting January 1974. Public support collapsed within months — from roughly 79% to about 42%, as widely reported at the time — after reports that schoolchildren were killed in traffic accidents during dark winter mornings. Congress reversed the experiment that October, less than a year in, and a later government review found it had saved little, if any, energy.