{"id":77509,"date":"2026-08-17T09:55:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T14:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/17\/reporters-notebook-daylight-saving-time-fight-puts-senate-up-against-a-ticking-clock\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T09:55:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T14:55:38","slug":"reporters-notebook-daylight-saving-time-fight-puts-senate-up-against-a-ticking-clock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/17\/reporters-notebook-daylight-saving-time-fight-puts-senate-up-against-a-ticking-clock\/","title":{"rendered":"Reporter’s Notebook: Daylight saving time fight puts Senate up against a ticking clock"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Senate<\/a> is on the clock. In a matter of speaking. Or ticking.<\/p>\n

The House of Representatives<\/a> approved a bill earlier this year to thrust the nation onto permanent daylight saving time. In other words, the House voted to ditch the twice-a-year ritual of springing forward and falling back. Now it\u2019s up to the Senate<\/a> to sync up.<\/p>\n

“Around the country, people are going to be excited because they don\u2019t have to go back and forth,” opined Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., one of the biggest advocates of shifting to year-round daylight saving time.<\/p>\n

Under this temporal regime, Florida and many southern states would benefit from “more” sun later in the afternoon and evening in the winter.<\/p>\n

HOUSE PASSES DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME REFORM AS TRUMP SIGNALS SUPPORT FOR ENDING CLOCK CHANGE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Scott isn\u2019t the only one who says time should expire for daylight saving time.<\/p>\n

“People are sick and tired of having to change their clocks twice a year. It is foolish, inconvenient and, in some cases, very costly. For Cities and States with Watchtowers, and hard to reach places, it costs Millions of Dollars,” declared President Donald Trump<\/a> in a post on his social media site Truth Social.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear whether Trump was trying to reach voters with allegiances to Jimi Hendrix or Bob Dylan when writing about “Watchtowers.” But if the president has his way, the times won\u2019t be “A Changin\u2019,” later this fall. We\u2019d be welded to daylight saving time.<\/p>\n

President Trump continued.<\/p>\n

“This is an issue that Republicans<\/a>, Democrats, and Independents can unite behind. I am asking Republican Senators to release their holds, and allow the hotline to clear on the Republican side. LET\u2019S PASS THE SUNSHINE PROTECTION ACT, ASAP,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s dial things back a bit here and dissect the title of this bill: “The Sunshine Protection Act.”<\/p>\n

First, there is a finite amount of sunshine available, period. Any time of the year. Bellingham, Washington, scores only about eight-and-a-half hours of sunlight around the winter solstice in December. And whether we\u2019re on daylight saving time or standard time, the sheer amount of sun doesn\u2019t change.<\/p>\n

The only thing that differs is at what time Bellingham gets that sun. Under standard time (following the autumn clock shift), the earliest the sun sets in Bellingham is 4:13 p.m. in mid-December. But under permanent daylight saving time, you can sing good day, sunshine, at 3:13 p.m. The problem is that the sun goes down really early in northern states in the winter under year-round daylight saving time. But southern states \u2014 like Florida \u2014 benefit.<\/p>\n

The reason Congress<\/a> even bothers with this issue is because Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution grants the House and Senate authority to establish the “Standard of Weights and Measures.” So all Congress is doing is determining a temporal regimen.<\/p>\n

In short, if Congress says it\u2019s 3 o\u2019clock, it\u2019s 3 o\u2019clock. But if we fall back in November, then 3 o\u2019clock is really 2 o\u2019clock.<\/p>\n

However, leave it to Congress to create the illusion that it is safeguarding something for the voters, such as “protecting” sunshine. Or, giving everyone an “extra hour” in the winter. It\u2019s just saying that everything would start earlier.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all.<\/p>\n

TRUMP URGES SENATE TO PASS BILL MAKING DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME PERMANENT AFTER OVERWHELMING HOUSE VOTE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Regardless, the push to embrace daylight saving time isn\u2019t partisan.<\/p>\n

“People across New Mexico and across so many parts of the country don’t want to be changing those clocks day after day,” said Sen. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n, D-N.M.<\/p>\n

Luj\u00e1n survived a stroke several years ago. He believes that a singular time, year-round, would provide health benefits.<\/p>\n

“I can speak to it from the perspective of all the neurologists that I’ve spoken to as well. There are more and more health concerns with moving that time change back and forth,” said Lujan.<\/p>\n

And daylight saving time advocates say passing the Sunshine Protection Act is more pressing than you think.<\/p>\n

“You know, that might be more important to my people back home than the SAVE America Act<\/a>,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. That\u2019s a reference to the touchstone of the president\u2019s legislative agenda which is stymied in the Senate. The SAVE America Act would require proof of citizenship in order for people to vote.<\/p>\n

But there are detractors. We heard from southern lawmakers. But many in New England fret about how little sunlight they score in the winter anyway.<\/p>\n

“You want your kid standing out on the bus stop in the dark at 10 a.m.?” asked Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s an overstatement. The latest the sun comes up anywhere in Vermont in late December is 7:28 a.m. But shift that to permanent daylight saving time and you\u2019re still in the dark until 8:28 a.m. But you get the idea.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s no consensus from residents of states that are split by two time zones. A staggering 14 states feature two time zones: Alaska, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas. Eastern Time and Central Time cleaves Indiana.<\/p>\n

“Hoosiers care a lot about time,” said Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind. “They also have fundamental disagreements within the state, about what time it is or should be at any given moment.”<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s the old adage that those who don\u2019t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. This potential toggling of the time worries Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas \u2013 who represents one of the states that falls within two time zones.<\/p>\n

HARRIS BECOMES ACCIDENTAL SAVE ACT \u2018SALESWOMAN\u2019 AS TRUMP ATTACK SPECTACULARLY BACKFIRES<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“Didn’t we do this once before?” asked Cornyn.<\/p>\n

“In the \u201870s,” I told Cornyn. “And we reversed it in six months.”<\/p>\n

“Yeah, well that should be a cautionary tale,” observed the Texas senator.<\/p>\n

The U.S. faced an oil shock thanks to an embargo by OPEC in the early 1970s. President Richard Nixon \u2013 and many in Congress \u2013 believed they could “save energy” by moving the U.S. to year-round daylight saving time. Congress approved the move in late 1973. But the decision proved so unpopular that future Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., prepped a bill to undo the time change. People abhorred having less sunlight in the morning. The bill passed in August 1974.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, had Nixon not resigned in August 1974 due to Watergate, it\u2019s possible he would have fought the whiplash time change.<\/p>\n

In other words, if you want to blame someone for why we switch our clocks twice a year, we\u2019ve found your culprit: Deep Throat.<\/p>\n

It was the Senate that OK’d a bill to nix the biannual time change in 2022. But the House never acted. Now the House has acted. The president is engaged. But it\u2019s up to the Senate.<\/p>\n

The Senate must take action by the end of this Congress. Time is running out. And they can\u2019t change the clocks for that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Senate is on the clock. In a matter of speaking. Or ticking. The House of Representatives approved a bill earlier this year to thrust the nation onto permanent daylight saving time. In other words, the House voted to ditch the twice-a-year ritual of springing forward and falling back. Now it\u2019s up to the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}