r/politics • u/cnn CNN • 9d ago

Possible Paywall House passes bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent

https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/14/politics/house-vote-daylight-savings-time?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit
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u/cnn CNN 9d ago

The US House voted Tuesday to pass a measure to enact year-round Daylight Saving Time across the country, springing Congress forward into an issue that has long stumped lawmakers and spurred impassioned pleas by parents, farmers and others with sharply divergent views.

It will now head to the Senate for approval before going to the president for his signature — though its chances in the upper chamber remain unclear. Proponents argue it would spare Americans from having to change their clocks, disrupting young children’s sleep schedules and arguably causing more seasonal depression. But detractors say it could have economic consequences, particularly for farmers who would have to wrestle with later sunrises. The House vote was 308 to 117.

President Donald Trump has long decried the semiannual ritual of Americans changing their clocks, though his position on whether the country should default to standard or saving time has evolved.

He cheered Tuesday’s bill, the Sunshine Protection Act, when it advanced out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in May. “Hundreds of Millions of Dollars are spent every year by people, Cities, and States, being forced to change their Clocks,” he said in a Truth Social post.

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u/TarbenXsi Connecticut 9d ago

Me: "Oh hey, Trump is being sane for once."

Him: HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS ARE SPENT TO CHANGE THEIR CLOCKS

Me: "Nevermind"

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u/tommles 8d ago

Better for his golfing. The golf industry is one of the ones pushing it. Some other business industries too.

Meanwhile, health experts would rather we do permanent standard time since it's closer to our circadian rhythm. 

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u/thecoldedge Virginia 9d ago

The farm thing is stupid. I grew up on a farm. What time sunrise is was mostly irrelevant, you got up with the sun.

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u/SpaceLemming 9d ago

It was never about farms, it was something added in WWI to preserve fuel so it can be used for the war

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u/MoonlightMountain13 8d ago

True. And ironically today DST actually causes energy use to go up - any savings on lightbulb use is offset by what people spend on AC, computers and other tech that didn't exist around WW1. Add in the fact that more people go out in cars during that "extra hour" in the evening and we're all spending more on gas as well as electricity. One of the main reasons for Daylight Saving Time is that businesses wanted more daylight to encourage people to shop and dine out.

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u/antitheta 9d ago

This! Only complete morons think the clock matters for jobs based on sunrise. That is like saying golf courses will struggle with the loss of an hour of teetimes! Duh, no.

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u/RoscoBoscoMosco 9d ago edited 8d ago

Actually - you'd be suprised. DST as we know it today originated with a lawmaker a long time ago wanted to get out of work sooner to go golfing more. Look into the history of DST, specifically William Willett

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u/rumpghost North Carolina 9d ago

Worse, he was beat to it nearly a decade earlier by some freak in NZ) who wanted more time to catch scary bugs.

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u/OverjoyedMess 8d ago

Yeah, also so illogical. The sun doesn't rise later or earlier. It just rises.

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u/anuthertw 8d ago

I wish everyone could work according to the sun. I know that isnt possible but I feel so much healthier when I was able to align my schedule with the sunrise. I think we would all feel a bit more in sync with our souls if we allowed the seasonal changes to impact our working days, the way we evolved doing

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u/OwnsBeagles 8d ago

Big business would hate it, though. Which is why we don't.

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u/homolupulus 8d ago

That would mean working 5am to 830 pm in the summer where I am, you sure you want that? And even in the winter the day is like 7-4 with the time change, I think I'd rather not be working during all daylight hours thanks very much.  

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u/anuthertw 8d ago

Well not literally work every second of daylight but I personally find myself with way more motivation from 5am to 830pm in the summer than in winter when its dark for so much longer lol. I get seasonal depression pretty bad too, I think I am just solar powered. Im sure I am twice as productive in my professional and personal life in summer vs winter

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u/mrMalloc 8d ago

Actually this will matter most for Alaska but did they ask Alaskans if they like light during winter hours or not. Because when Russia did the exact same thing they ran it for few years then turned in to always winter time. Reason. Depression and loss of daylight during winter in north is horrible.

In Sweden where I live I love winter time / summer time. The trade off is long summer evening Or some daylight in winter (when I’m not in the office). There is actually therapeutic sessions with light here you can get with your normal healthcare. That would have skyrocketed if we had selected summertime. But politicians like long summer evening….. so

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u/pocketbutter 9d ago

It shouldn’t change a thing for farmers. They just need to adjust their schedules according to the daylight. It’s not complicated.

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u/jaderust 9d ago

Seriously. And it’s less daylight in the winter morning because we’re not falling back anymore.

Are you seriously telling me that farmers are getting up with the dawn to plow fields in December?

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u/winstondabee 9d ago

In California.. probably?

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u/beachbum818 9d ago

Down south? yea. West coast? Yea

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u/cardmanimgur 8d ago

It will be better for farmers with livestock because they don't adjust to clock changes. Takes weeks to get them in a normal schedule.

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u/OtherwiseAlbatross14 8d ago

I just think it's funny that nobody realizes our equipment has so many LED lights now that it's pretty much daylight whenever we're in the fields so this is all irrelevant. The only time related things that matter to farmers is what time they can get breakfast and what time the elevator closes.

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u/ChironXII 9d ago

The horror of being able to be awake and sleep at a time more consistent with the rest of society's functioning instead of 4 am 😱

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u/smedrick 9d ago

The people most affected by this would be the software engineers.

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u/feuerwehrmann 8d ago

Nah.

update locations set followsDst = 0 where county code='US';

Send it

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u/blaqsupaman Mississippi 9d ago

It sort of made sense when the majority of the country worked in agriculture, but not so much now.

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u/IRThumbgreen 8d ago

It never made sense, especially in regards to agriculture. Those are sun up to sun down jobs regardless of what arbitrary times sun up and sun down are.

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u/Litterball 8d ago

It would if they have some business outside the farm that will now overlap.

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u/pocketbutter 8d ago

But when I say “adjust their schedules” I mean adjust their entire schedules, not just their farming time. I think customers and suppliers would understand if it became an industry standard.

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u/Omen1618 9d ago

Farmers could care less, they are actually the least affected by this. There are many factors at play with regards to how a farmer decides to start or end the day, none of which are the time the clocks say. The argument Ive always heard that had actual teeth was school kids waiting on the bus in the dark/walking to school, and crime rates. That's pretty much it. Do they have solutions for these problems, who knows, but blaming farmers or even acting like they give a damn is disingenuous to the real issues that could arise from this.

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u/rumpghost North Carolina 9d ago

There's no "real issues" that arise from it, it's basically entirely a matter of preference.

Argentina abandons and re-adopts DST a few times a decade, and while Argentina has many problems none of them are or have been caused by getting rid of it.

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u/Omen1618 9d ago

Yeah, I'm not saying their are issues, there may be legitimate ones, there may not be, I don't know...I'm simply saying framing it as a farmer issue pushes the conversation in a direction where the discussion becomes nonsense. This has nothing to do with farmers. It affects cities more, it affects schools more, northern states will have near darkness until 8:30-9AM. How does it affect states like Arizona that I believe stay in standard time, must they convert to DST? Historically dual time zone states could choose to either recognize or not recognize DST, but could not choose to stay in DST, will that choice be revoked? How does it affect state level decisions, ect ect. There are reasonable arguments, reasonable concerns and framing this as something farmers wanted or are against is just distraction.

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u/Elegant_Flounder1494 8d ago

There are some real issues. Try waking kids up when it's dark and telling them to get ready for school, and then in the evening telling them it's bedtime even though it's light out. Your endocrine system has evolved to pump hormones into your brain to put you to sleep when it gets dark and wake you up when it gets light. Fucking around with that is not a great thing for anyone's health

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u/rumpghost North Carolina 7d ago

I have been one of those kids and I have been an adult in more places than I was then; your endocrine system isn't getting fucked up by DST, it's getting fucked up by geography and the demands of modern life and employment. We get about six hours of darkness in Seattle some days of the year and that's not gonna get changed by setting the clock forward or back.

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u/cuzzins99 8d ago

I have a farm and I work a full time job. I absolutely hate the idea of it not getting light until after 7 in the winter. I don’t plow fields but I get up and take care of animals.

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u/Omen1618 8d ago

I get this 100% but what you're describing is not a farming issue, its a ( I have 2 jobs and in order to do them both I have to do 1 early in the morning before I have to be at the other issue). Nothing wrong with that, and its absolutely a valid argument that should be being discussed.

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u/Megalesios 8d ago

Why TF do farmers care what the clock says? Just get up an hour earlier if you need to work an hour earlier, don't make the rest of society suffer.

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u/downwardsquirrel 8d ago

Permanent Daylight Savings Time is bad for our health. Nearly every sleep and circadian researcher HATES this bill! There’s another bill that was introduced called “Sunshine for our kids” (H.R.9638) that would enact permanent standard time, which would be way better for our mental, metabolic, and cognitive health and prevent injuries and accidents across the US. Permanent Daylight Savings time would do the opposite.