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House Republicans are advancing legislation to make daylight saving time permanent nationwide, a proposal backed by President Donald Trump.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee is considering adoption of the Sunshine Protection Act, which would allow states to observe daylight saving time year-round and eliminate the twice-yearly clock changes currently observed across most of the country.
“Addressing Daylight Saving Time has been a priority for a number of members for a while now,” committee communications director Matt VanHyfte said in a statement to The Washington Post.
VanHyfte said lawmakers heard testimony during a hearing last November suggesting that extended evening daylight can increase economic activity while also improving road safety.
“The Committee held a hearing last November and heard testimony that an extra hour of sun at the end of the day boosts economic activity, and there is evidence that changing time is a highway safety concern, with a surge of traffic fatalities occurring the week following time changes,” he said.
“The Committee led legislation that extended DST in 2007, and is examining ways to further address it now.”
According to The Washington Post, committee leaders hope to include the Sunshine Protection Act in a broader legislative package expected to be voted on this week.
President Trump has repeatedly voiced support for making daylight saving time permanent, a position that has drawn bipartisan backing in Congress.
“We’re working on a bill now, and we’re going to be doing it,” the president told the Washington Reporter. “I hope we’re going to do it. We’re pushing it very hard.”
A 2025 AP-NORC poll found that only 12 percent of Americans support continuing the current system of changing clocks twice each year.
Opponents of the proposal, however, argue that permanent daylight saving time could create excessively dark winter mornings in some parts of the country.
Sen. Tom Cotton criticized the idea last year, warning that some communities would not see sunrise until after 9 a.m. during winter months.
“If permanent daylight savings time becomes the law of the land, it will again make winter a dark and dismal time for millions of Americans,” Cotton said.
