Trump urges Congress to adopt permanent daylight saving time

President Donald Trump on Friday pushed Congress to adopt permanent daylight saving time, an idea Trump said was "very popular" and would avoid the "costly" changing of the clocks.

"The House and Senate should push hard for more Daylight at the end of a day. Very popular and, most importantly, no more changing of the clocks, a big inconvenience and, for our government, A VERY COSTLY EVENT," Trump wrote. 

This comes as the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on Thursday to weigh the issue, per Politico. During the hearing, Senators from both sides of the aisle said they wanted to make sure states still had the ability to choose between standard or daylight saving time and weighed economic and health trade-offs.

Commerce Chair Ted Cruze said there is consensus that the changing of the clocks should come to an end, but there is disagreement as to what time to stay with. Advocates for permanent standard time have said that their time would lead to better sleep, while advocates for daylight saving time have said that the extended sunlight into the evening would benefit recreation and exercise.

In the hearing, Senator Todd Young argued that his state of Indiana, if permanent daylight saving time was instituted, would not see the same benefit as other states farther in the east, and that the sun would not rise until 9 am in the winter in Indiana.

"Hoosiers would begin their day in darkness for much of winter … What works for East Coast states, I’m hearing from many of my constituents, may not work for states like Indiana. A one-size-fits-all national policy of time changes doesn’t take into account the regional differences that significantly impact daily life."

This comes after Trump in December called for an end to daylight saving time, calling it "inconvenient" and "very costly to our Nation." In 2022, the Senate passed a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, but the bill stalled in the House.