Sheesh... If you were smart like me, you would have two sundials. One for DST and one for Standard Time and you just change them out twice a year.
Posted on 10/29/2025 8:12:15 AM PDT by Red Badger
A bipartisan group of lawmakers sought unanimous consent approval for a bill that would stop the changing of the clocks.
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Sen. Tom Cotton wasn’t fast enough in 2022 to block Senate passage of legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent. Three years later, he wasn’t about to repeat that same mistake.
The Arkansas Republican was on hand Tuesday afternoon to thwart a bipartisan effort on the chamber floor to pass a bill that would put an end to changing the clocks twice a year, including this coming Sunday.
“If permanent Daylight Savings Time becomes the law of the land, it will again make winter a dark and dismal time for millions of Americans,” said Cotton in his objection to a request by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to advance the bill by unanimous consent.
“For many Arkansans, permanent daylight savings time would mean the sun wouldn’t rise until after 8:00 or even 8:30am during the dead of winter,” Cotton continued. “The darkness of permanent savings time would be especially harmful for school children and working Americans.”
A cross-party coalition of lawmakers has been trying for years to make daylight saving time the default, which would result in more daylight in the evening hours with less in the morning, plus bring to a halt to biannual clock adjustments.
President Donald Trump endorsed the concept this spring, calling the changing of the clocks “a big inconvenience and, for our government, A VERY COSTLY EVENT!!!”
His comments coincided with a hearing, then a markup, of Scott’s legislation in the Senate Commerce Committee. It set off an intense lobbying battle in turn, pitting the golf and retail industries — which are advocating for permanent daylight saving time — against the likes of sleep doctors and Christian radio broadcasters — who prefer standard time.
Joined by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) in calling for the Senate to pass the bill Tuesday, Scott cited states’ rights as a major reason for his support for the so-called “Sunshine Protection Act.”
“It allows the people of each state to choose what best fits their needs and the needs of their families,” said Scott. “The American people are sick and tired of changing their clocks twice a year. It’s confusing, unnecessary and completely outdated.”
There was hope earlier this year that momentum was growing for the quixotic legislative campaign after progress stalled following senators’ success in 2022 to pass a version of Scott’s bill by unanimous consent — an outcome typically reserved for noncontroversial bills that took lawmakers by surprise.
Cotton on Tuesday decried the “abject failure” of the last time Congress enacted permanent daylight saving time in 1974, pledging to always oppose legislation that would do just that.
He said he took “full responsibility” for dropping the ball in 2022, explaining he hadn’t adequately communicated the extent of his opposition and that he had expected another senator to object.
” they *lost* an hour of daylight with DST as they lost an hour of the morning sun.”
Silliness... nobody, anywhere loses an hour of daylight. And Farmers don’t operate that way.
I think what would be most beneficial would be to simply not have the time change - whatever it is. Right now, I use 2 different clock settings in my house. I have decided to leave all un-changing clocks on Standard Time. The auto-DST-changing clocks keep my wife happy.
There is another irony I neglected to mention. Any modern Mapping application will give you a store or any other enterprise’s hours of operation. Some stores adopt different operating hours. They could now change these hours seasonally with no more impact than already exists, if they wanted to.
Also, some clocks, like in my telephone or car receive time information from the land-line or by radio. Of course, the Internet carries its own time information. These devices offer a potpourri of adjustment to a DST change of time.
The entire solution mirrors, to me, the Liberal mindset of reacting to a lifetime of unintended consequences.
“School districts in my state can set their hours for attendance for different grade levels.”
Change starting times for schools, school bus routes etc...to save us from resetting the clocks. Got it...
Sheesh... If you were smart like me, you would have two sundials. One for DST and one for Standard Time and you just change them out twice a year.
Well, reality is something altogether different. You’ll need to go back in time and let the farmers know past to present that the markets didn’t actually close when they did, causing them to lose an hour of daylight to work and harvest, and they did not actually lobby intensely to block it, including taking a case all the way to the Supreme Court to try to get rid of it.
Reality and what you say are always at polar opposites - seemingly no matter what the topic is.
I couldn’t remember when. I thought it was during Ford or Carter but Nixon sounds right, too.
Daylight
Standard
Time
It’s literally in the name “STANDARD”.
Let’s use that - rather than something NON-standard.
“Hospitals, government offices, the military, farms (cows don’t use clocks), manufacturing, etc. would not bother changing work hours and would save money not changing clocks.”
That then screws the parents who work those jobs and who need to take their kids to school. Not a great trade off to save changing a clock twice a year.
Thank you Tom. Let’s move to standard time and stay there.
Or, if this is just beyond one's technological skills, buy clocks that adjust in and out of DST automatically.... like the smart phone does.
The simplest, most effective solution is usually the most overlooked.
“
I agree with Senator Cotton. We should change the clocks back to Standard Time next week for the last time and be done with it.”
NO! Exactly WRONG!
We should make Daylight Savings Time PERMANENT!
This should be a matter for each state to decide, not the federal government. There’s nothing in the Constitution about time zones. I prefer year-round standard time as it is where I live in Arizona, but people in northern states may very well prefer DST. I don’t demand that they change, and they shouldn’t be able to force me to change.
Only 40% of the workforce have children under 18 at home.
It’s easier and cheaper to not change clocks twice a year and let everyone adjust and live their lives according to the natural rhythms.
Parents will have to figure it out, just like every parent since Adam and Eve has done.
DST wasn’t created for parents anyway as the bulk of the school year is on Standard time. DST was created for retailers to have more daylight leisure hours in the evening for customers.
I hate the getting dark early part of this, but I do think it’s better than people having to go to work and school when it’s still dark. Keep it this way because it DOES work better. It’s certainly NOT perfect but it IS better this way.
I totally agree. Looking forward to the sun coming up an hour earlier. I truly believe, people think they’re going to get an extra hour of daylight or something stupid like that. Even here.
Split the time change by 1/2 hr and make everyone unhappy.
Personally, that “Spring Forward” change in the spring just exhausts me. I hate it.
LOL! I was wondering when a pet owner was going to respond as our cat would think we were crazy for an early supper for about a week and then wonder why we haven’t looked at the clock feeding so late a week the other change of time!
Make it 1/2 hour, split the difference and make one time permanent year around and stop this silliness. We have other better things to do than continue to legislate this with no progress or to abuse ourselves twice a year changing our clocks and upsetting our circadian rhythm.
It is another national IQ test we fail.
Just make everyone use UTC time..............
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