President Donald Trump renewed his push to make daylight saving time permanent on Thursday, hours after the House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced a bill that includes the Sunshine Protection Act in a 48-1 vote. Trump used Truth Social to celebrate the panel’s action and argued that the country should stop changing its clocks twice a year.
He said hundreds of millions of dollars are spent every year by people, cities and states forced to reset clocks, adding that many of the devices sit in towers and are expensive to reach with heavy equipment. He called the process a “ridiculous, twice yearly production” and said it was time for people to stop worrying about the clock. In the same post, Trump said the shift would be a “very nice WIN for the Republican Party.”
The committee’s action moved the bill to the House floor, according to Rep. Vern Buchanan, whose office said the Sunshine Protection Act was included as a provision in an amendment in the nature of a substitute to the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act. Buchanan’s office said the House measure now has 32 bipartisan cosponsors, while Senate companion legislation S. 29, introduced by Sen. Rick Scott, has 18 bipartisan cosponsors. The bill is part of a broader push to end the twice-annual clock change, a practice Trump has long attacked as costly and inconvenient.
Trump made the issue a talking point again in April 2025, when he said the House and Senate should push hard for more daylight at the end of the day and said there should be no more changing of the clocks. On Thursday, he repeated that line of argument, saying the longer, brighter day was the “far more popular alternative” and asking, “who can be against that.” The legislation would not force a state that does not already observe daylight saving time to begin doing so, leaving current exemptions in place.
The bill still has a long way to go before it becomes law, but Thursday’s 48-1 committee vote and Trump’s fresh backing give it new momentum in a debate that has lingered for years. Whether Congress will turn that support into a final vote is the next test, especially with the Senate moving on its own companion bill and the House now set to take up the measure on the floor.
