Politics

Dueling Bills Set To Rock House Debate On Daylight Saving Time Clock Change

(Screen Capture/Architect of the Capitol)

President Donald Trump and some in the Make America Healthy Again movement are finding themselves on opposite sides of a clock change debate set to come to Capitol Hill on Monday.

The House Rules Committee is set to discuss the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025, a Trump-backed effort to effectively scrap standard time in favor of daylight saving time, when it meets Monday afternoon. On Friday, however, one committee member, Democratic Pennsylvania Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, along with Republican North Carolina Rep. Pat Harrigan, introduced a bill which instead seeks to make standard time the permanent default across the country.

Republican Florida Rep. Vern Buchanan introduced the Sunshine Protection Act in January 2025, which would “make daylight savings time permanent.” On May 21, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the bill 48-1 after tying it to the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act, a sweeping transportation reform package. The only “no” vote came from Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Jake Auchincloss, who objected not because of Buchanan’s bill but because of a provision in the greater transportation legislation.

“The case for permanent daylight saving time is backed by real data. Nearly half of American adults and one in five children struggle with obesity, and research shows extended evening daylight encourages more physical activity, especially for kids,” Buchanan said in a statement sent to the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF).

“Studies also show the twice-yearly clock change disrupts our circadian rhythms, and researchers estimate permanent DST could prevent more than 220,000 strokes a year and reduce obesity cases by 1.7 million,” the congressman’s statement continued. “That’s a significant, well-documented benefit for the health and wellbeing of American families and businesses alike.”

Trump hailed the near-unanimous committee passage of the pro-daylight saving time bill, writing on Truth Social, “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. [sic]”

“We are going with the far more popular alternative, Saving Daylight, which gives you a longer, brighter Day — And who can be against that,” Trump continued.

Many allied with the MAHA movement, however, instead argue that, while Trump and Buchanan are right to want to get rid of the clock change, they picked the wrong time.

“With natural health, you need good nutrition and good exercise, and you need good sleep. And permanent standard time best facilitates good sleep because it naturally aligns the human circadian rhythm with the rising and the setting of the sun,” Jay Pea, founder and president of Save Standard Time, told the DCNF. “You need sunlight in the morning to stimulate cortisol and feel awake and alert … You need darkness in the evening to stimulate melatonin, so you feel drowsy and you can get to bed on time.”

“When we’re on standard time, that balance of morning and evening daylight is working in your favor,” Pea added. “When we’re on daylight saving time, we have extra darkness in the morning, so it’s harder to wake up, and we have extra light in the evening, so it’s harder to fall asleep, and you end up losing a little sleep at both ends of the day, and that over the long term has a chronic wear and tear on your mental and physical abilities.”

Pea pointed out that the U.S. already tried permanent daylight saving time twice — once during World War II and again during the 1970s oil crisis — and eventually repealed it both times. The country’s most recent experiment with permanent daylight time did not even last one year. Meanwhile, the U.S. used only standard time for nearly the first 150 years of its existence, with daylight saving time being first enacted in 1918. Two states, Hawaii and Pea’s home state of Arizona — aside from the Navajo reservation — currently use permanent standard time.

“Essentially, daylight saving time is a hidden government mandate to wake an hour earlier than standard time,” Pea told the DCNF. “We should set the clock as objectively as we can, timed to the sun and then let people set their schedules from there.”

Harrigan and Scanlon’s bill, the Sunshine for Our Kids Act, would set the entire country to standard time but still give states the option to continue to change their clocks to daylight saving time if they so wish.

“It’s hard to find anyone who enjoys changing the clocks twice a year, yet Americans have been stuck with the same outdated policy for decades,” Harrigan said in a Friday press release announcing the bill. “The Sunshine for Our Kids Act replaces that one-size-fits-all mandate with a smarter approach by making standard time the default while allowing states to decide what works best for their own communities.”

“The Sunshine for Our Kids Act will not only help children and teens during the most important years for mental and physical development, but will also promote public health and safety in our communities,” Scanlon said in the release.

Harrigan and Scanlon’s offices did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), the leading professional association for sleep medicine specialists is supporting the pro-standard time bill.

“Permanent standard time is the healthier choice for all Americans,” AASM president Dr. Fariha Abbasi-Feinberg said in a press release. “We are grateful to Congresswoman Scanlon for championing legislation that puts health and safety first and helps ensure that mornings are better aligned with natural light and human circadian rhythms.”

While health groups such as AASM back standard time, the idea of permanent daylight time is receiving strong support from an unlikely source: the golf industry. The industry’s leaders believe that the later sunset times daylight saving time affords would encourage more employees who work 9-to-5 schedules to golf after work.

Jay Karen, CEO of the National Golf Course Owners Association of America, told the Energy and Commerce Committee in November 2025 that switching to daylight time on a permanent basis would result in “at least a 1 percent uptick in the overall golf industry,” according to his data, Golf.com reported. He further estimated the change would “add 2-5 percent in the golf economy overnight.”

Florida, the state which has the most golf courses in the country, also happens to be where Buchanan, Trump — a noted golf enthusiast — and other prominent supporters of permanent daylight saving time call home.

If the Rules Committee approves Buchanan’s Sunshine Protection Act, it would then go to the full House floor for debate and a final vote.

The committee is considering the Sunshine Protection Act to advance to the floor as a standalone bill despite the fact it is already folded into the transportation package which is being considered by the entire chamber.

House Republican leadership is making the unusual decision to separate the daylight saving time bill in order to get Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna in line, Politico reported Friday, citing four anonymous sources. Luna is a staunch advocate of the SAVE America Act who has derailed other recent votes in protest of the lack of action on the election integrity bill. She also represents Florida, the state inextricably tied to the push for permanent daylight time.