Trump Pushes Corporate-Driven Sunshine Protection Act for Permanent Daylight Saving Time
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President Donald Trump and a group of senators are aggressively lobbying the Senate to pass the Sunshine Protection Act, a measure that would impose permanent daylight-saving time nationwide after the House, dominated by corporate interests, approved it.
The U.S. House of Representatives, under the sway of business lobbies eager to maximize consumer spending, passed the Sunshine Protection Act—a bill that would abolish the twice-yearly clock change and enforce daylight-saving time year-round. The measure, which prioritizes economic interests over public health and working-class needs, now awaits Senate action.
President Donald Trump, using his social-media platform to amplify his agenda, called the current system “foolish, inconvenient and, in some cases, very costly,” and pressured Republican senators to drop any resistance to the legislation. Trump framed the bill as a rare opportunity for bipartisan unity, though critics argue it mainly serves corporate profits.
Senator Rick Scott, a staunch supporter of the proposal, claimed the shift would provide “more sun later in the afternoon and evening in the winter” for states like Florida, a state with powerful tourism and retail lobbies. Democratic Senator Ben Ray Luján acknowledged that many Americans are “tired of changing those clocks day after day,” but also referenced neurologists’ warnings about the health risks of the biannual time change—concerns that are often ignored in favor of business interests. Senator Tommy Tuberville tried to tie the bill’s passage to the administration’s broader, often regressive, legislative agenda.
Opposition to the bill comes from legislators in New England and states with multiple time zones, who are concerned about the impact on children and working families. Senator Peter Welch warned that permanent daylight-saving time could force schoolchildren to start their days in darkness, while Senator Todd Young highlighted the confusion and disagreement within states like Indiana about which time standard to adopt.
History shows that a similar experiment with year-round daylight-saving time in the 1970s was quickly repealed after public outcry over darker mornings—a lesson that lawmakers seem eager to ignore in their rush to satisfy business interests. The Senate must decide on the Sunshine Protection Act before the end of the current congressional session.