President Trump is once again taking aim at one of America’s most universally hated rituals: the twice-a-year government-mandated clock shuffle that leaves everyone tired, cranky and wondering why Washington still thinks it’s 1918.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 48-1 on Thursday to advance a broader legislative package containing the Sunshine Protection Act — the long-running effort to make daylight saving time permanent and finally kill off the semiannual time-change headache.
And Trump? He’s all in.
“Big Vote today (48-1!) in the Energy and Commerce Committee on a Bill including The Sunshine Protection Act, which will be making Daylight Saving Time Permanent!” Trump wrote on Truth Social after the vote. The president argued Americans are wasting mountains of money and energy every year just to keep up an outdated government ritual that most people can’t stand.
“This is so important in that Hundreds of Millions of Dollars are spent every year by people, Cities, and States, being forced to change their Clocks,” Trump wrote. “Many of these Clocks are located in Towers, and the cost of renting, or using, Heavy Equipment to do this twice a year is prohibitive!
“It’s time that people can stop worrying about the ‘Clock,’ not to mention all of the work and money that is spent on this ridiculous, twice yearly production,” Trump added. “It will also be a very nice WIN for the Republican Party. Take it!”
In classic Trump fashion, the president framed the issue as both common sense and political gold. “We are going with the far more popular alternative, Saving Daylight, which gives you a longer, brighter Day — And who can be against that — This is an easy one!”
Frankly, he’s got a point. Americans have been stumbling through groggy Monday mornings and accidentally microwaving dinner at 5 p.m. for decades because bureaucrats insist on fiddling with the clocks every March and November like it’s still wartime rationing.
The original concept of daylight saving time dates back to World War I and was pitched as a fuel-saving measure. More than a century later, critics argue the practice causes more problems than it solves — including sleep disruption, workplace accidents, traffic crashes and endless annoyance from people resetting ovens and dashboard clocks they forgot even existed.
Florida Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan, one of the leading backers of the legislation, celebrated the committee vote Thursday after the measure was folded into a larger transportation package headed for the House floor.
My Sunshine Protection Act will bring us one step closer to ending the outdated and unpopular practice of changing our clocks twice a year.
I’m proud to see it advanced through @HouseCommerce today and look forward to permanent DST becoming law. https://t.co/kFla5boJUt pic.twitter.com/IhfpCv777u
— Rep. Vern Buchanan (@VernBuchanan) May 21, 2026
According to Buchanan’s office, the House version now has 32 bipartisan cosponsors, while companion legislation introduced in the Senate by Florida Sen. Rick Scott has support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle as well. Even Democrats, usually eager to spend six months studying whether the sun is problematic, seem to realize voters are over the clock-change circus.
The proposal would not force states like Arizona or Hawaii — which already opt out of daylight saving time — to change their current systems. Trump has been hammering the issue for more than a year, arguing Americans overwhelmingly want more sunlight in the evening and less government nonsense messing with their schedules. “The House and Senate should push hard for more Daylight at the end of a day,” Trump wrote in a 2025 Truth Social post. “Very popular and, most importantly, no more changing of the clocks, a big inconvenience and, for our government, A VERY COSTLY EVENT!!!”
