President Donald Trump intensified his push Friday for permanent daylight saving time, singling out Sen. Tom Cotton as an obstacle after the House overwhelmingly approved legislation to eliminate the twice-yearly clock change.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom

President Donald Trump stepped up pressure on Senate Republicans Friday to make daylight saving time permanent, publicly blaming Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., for blocking legislation that would prevent most Americans from changing their clocks twice a year.

Trump used an early-morning Truth Social post to urge the Senate to act on the Sunshine Protection Act, which he has taken to calling the “No More Changing of Clocks Act.” The measure has already cleared the House but remains pending in the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

“A ridiculous Clock changing process that takes place twice a year, costs our Country a fortune, is bad for Crime, stress on people, Sports, and just about everything else you can imagine,” Trump wrote.

“People don’t want to go around changing their Clocks anymore and, besides, far and away, most people like having an hour of extra sunlight in the evening, rather than in the morning,” he added.

Trump then directly identified Cotton as the senator he believes is preventing the measure from moving forward.

“Unfortunately, it’s being held up by Senator Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, for reasons unknown,” Trump wrote.

The president’s criticism comes less than a month before daylight saving time is scheduled to end. Under current federal rules, clocks in most of the United States will move back one hour at 2 a.m. local time on Sunday, Nov. 1, returning the country to standard time for the winter. The National Institute of Standards and Technology confirms that daylight saving time in 2026 runs from March 8 through Nov. 1.

Changing that schedule before Nov. 1 now appears difficult. The Senate has adjourned from regular business until after the Nov. 3 midterm elections, with only pro forma sessions scheduled during October. The chamber is not expected to return for legislative business until Nov. 9, when its next roll-call vote is scheduled.

The House approved the Sunshine Protection Act in a bipartisan 308-117 vote on July 14, according to the official House roll call. The legislation was received in the Senate the following day and referred to the Commerce Committee, where it has remained.

If enacted in its current form, the legislation would make daylight saving time permanent rather than permanent standard time. That distinction means clocks would remain one hour ahead during winter instead of falling back in November, shifting both sunrise and sunset approximately one hour later by the clock.

The proposal has generated an unusual political alignment, with supporters and opponents in both parties. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said after the House vote that senators remained divided and questioned whether supporters could assemble the 60 votes generally needed to overcome a filibuster. Thune, who represents a northern state where winter sunrise times can already be late, has raised concerns about permanent daylight saving time.

Cotton has been one of its most outspoken Republican opponents.

In an October 2025 Senate floor speech, Cotton argued that ending the clock changes by adopting permanent daylight saving time would solve one problem while creating another: long stretches of darkness on winter mornings.

“If permanent daylight saving time becomes the law of the land, it will again make winter a dark and dismal time for millions of Americans,” Cotton said.

He warned that some Arkansas communities would not see sunrise until after 8 a.m. during the darkest part of winter. In parts of the northern United States and communities along the western edges of time zones, sunrise could come significantly later. Cotton cited schoolchildren traveling before sunrise and people whose jobs begin early, including construction workers and farmers, as groups he believes would be disadvantaged.

Cotton has said he also dislikes the twice-yearly clock change but would prefer permanent standard time if Congress decides to abolish seasonal changes altogether.

That position places him closer to several major sleep and medical organizations than to Trump on the question of which time system should become permanent.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine opposed the House’s passage of the Sunshine Protection Act in July. The organization supports ending the twice-yearly switch but argues that permanent standard time, rather than daylight saving time, better matches the human circadian system and the natural cycle of morning and evening light.

The AASM says seasonal clock changes are associated with short-term health and safety problems, particularly after clocks move forward in the spring. Its position statement cites evidence involving motor vehicle crashes, cardiovascular events and mood disturbances. At the same time, the organization argues that permanent daylight saving time could create longer-term circadian misalignment because of later morning sunlight.

Trump takes the opposite view on the permanent-time question. He argues that Americans would benefit from retaining more daylight in the evening, particularly for families, recreation, sports, restaurants, retail businesses and tourism.

His Friday post also linked permanent daylight saving time to lower crime, fewer traffic accidents, reduced health risks and lower energy costs. Those effects are contested, and research does not uniformly establish that permanent daylight saving time would produce all of the benefits Trump listed.

The debate has persisted for decades in part because eliminating clock changes requires choosing which side of the day receives the additional hour of apparent daylight. Permanent daylight saving time provides later sunsets but also later winter sunrises. Permanent standard time produces earlier morning light but earlier evening darkness.

Federal law currently takes a third approach by switching between the two.

The Uniform Time Act allows states to exempt themselves from daylight saving time and remain on standard time throughout the year. Hawaii and most of Arizona do so, along with several U.S. territories. States cannot independently choose year-round daylight saving time under existing federal law, which is why congressional action is necessary for states that want to remain permanently on the summer schedule.

Congress has tried permanent daylight saving time before.

During the 1970s energy crisis, lawmakers placed most of the country on year-round daylight saving time beginning in January 1974 as part of an effort to conserve energy. The arrangement quickly encountered opposition as families faced dark winter mornings and children traveled to school before sunrise.

Cotton has repeatedly cited that experience in making his case against the current legislation. In his 2025 speech, he said support for permanent daylight saving time fell substantially after Americans experienced it firsthand and noted that Congress ended the experiment earlier than originally planned.

The issue resurfaced prominently in 2022, when the Senate passed an earlier version of the Sunshine Protection Act by unanimous consent. That bill never received a House vote before the congressional session ended.

Cotton later explained that he did not personally object during the 2022 unanimous-consent request because of an internal communication problem and because he believed another senator would object. He subsequently became an active opponent of the proposal.

This Congress reversed the legislative pattern. The House has now passed permanent daylight saving time, while the Senate has yet to act.

Trump is attempting to change that.

His decision to publicly name Cotton increases pressure within the Republican conference over an issue that does not follow traditional partisan lines. Trump endorsed Cotton’s reelection, but their disagreement over daylight saving time has placed them on opposite sides of the current legislation.

The president maintains that the status quo is unnecessarily disruptive and says the public broadly wants an end to seasonal clock adjustments. Cotton agrees that changing clocks can be inconvenient but contends that permanent daylight saving time is the wrong solution because of its effect on winter mornings.

Medical organizations opposing H.R. 139 likewise distinguish between eliminating clock changes and choosing permanent daylight saving time. The AASM has instead backed separate legislation that would establish permanent standard time while giving states greater flexibility.

That leaves Congress with three competing possibilities: retain the current spring-and-fall changes, adopt year-round daylight saving time as the House has proposed, or move toward permanent standard time as Cotton and sleep-health organizations prefer.

For 2026, however, the immediate outcome is becoming clearer. With the Senate away from regular legislative business until Nov. 9, Americans in most states remain scheduled to turn their clocks back on Nov. 1.

Trump is now trying to ensure it is among the last times they have to do so.

Original article