Trump hails ‘big vote’ on Daylight Saving Time bill

President Donald Trump on Thursday hailed the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s 48-1 vote to advance the Sunshine Protection Act, calling it a “Big Vote” and pledging to “work very hard” to see the long-stalled measure making daylight saving time permanent signed into law.

“This is so important in that Hundreds of Millions of Dollars are spent every year by people, Cities, and States, being forced to change their Clocks. Many of these Clocks are located in Towers, and the cost of renting, or using, Heavy Equipment to do this twice a year is prohibitive!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

“It’s time that people can stop worrying about the ‘Clock,’ not to mention all of the work and money that is spent on this ridiculous, twice yearly production,” he continued.

He thanked House Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky.; the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla.; and Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, whose railway safety provisions were folded into the package.

The panel folded Buchanan’s Sunshine Protection Act into the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act, which Trump called “The Highway Bill,” and sent the package to the House floor on May 21.

The bill would lock the country on daylight saving time year-round, with Hawaii and most of Arizona, which already observe standard time year-round, remaining exempt.

Trump framed the move as a political winner, writing it would be “a very nice WIN for the Republican Party” and that the country was “going with the far more popular alternative, Saving Daylight.”

Buchanan, who has reintroduced the bill every Congress since 2018, said the markup ends “the outdated and unpopular practice of changing our clocks twice a year.”

He said permanent daylight saving time “can improve public health, reduce traffic accidents, lower crime, and encourage more outdoor activity.”

The House measure has 32 bipartisan cosponsors; the Senate companion, sponsored by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., has 18. Scott and Buchanan took the bill over last year from now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Trump’s support marks the highest-profile push behind the legislation in years.

The Senate passed an earlier version by unanimous consent in March 2022, but the House never took it up, and the bill expired at the end of the 117th Congress.

Several senators said afterward they would have objected had they known it could clear the chamber that way.

Every other iteration since 2018 died in committee.

The country has tried permanent daylight time once before.

Congress passed and President Richard Nixon signed year-round daylight time in December 1973 as an oil-crisis energy measure, with the change taking effect in January 1974.

Public support cratered as schoolchildren walked to school in winter darkness, and President Gerald Ford signed legislation reversing it in October 1974.

Trump’s posture on the issue has shifted before.

In March 2025, he called it a “50-50 issue” and said it was “hard to get excited” about, then reversed weeks later to urge Congress to act.

The package now heads to the House floor, with no Senate schedule set.

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