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 It’s confusing, unnecessary and completely outdated.”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.
“Why not make daylight savings time permanent?”
The main reason is that through winter, you’d have kids going to school in pitch dark, before sunrise. Cruel psychologically, and increases risk of accidents in the dark.
If you want to make standard time permanent, it would be better, but everyone gets an hour less sunlight after work in the summer to grill with their family after work.
Is it really too hard to change time twice a year?
Go back to Standard Time...and stop the chnage cr**. Kids will go to school in the daylight...and your golfing husbands will come home earlier...unless they play 19 holes.
Someone please tell Sen. Cotton that changing the clocks doesn’t change the amount of darkness in the winter time.
The sun is up the same # of hours, no matter what time he thinks it is.
I wish Cotton was a monkey.
Not sure if this is what you were saying, but to clarify, Cotton said he would support going to standard time year round.
Because it is logical and would make all of our lives easier.
Sometimes I think that governmental bureaucracies are agents of the devil whose job is to torment us.
So glad I live in Arizona.
The important thing is to get rid of the ridiculous twice-a-year disruption of changing the clocks.
It was during Nixon that it happened, not Carter.
The elementary school I attended simply started and ended a half an hour later.
Basic astronomy, the closer you get to the poles, the darker it is in winter. You can adjust work hours, store opening hours, and school hours if you want to. That would be better than pretending that you can legislate when the sun comes up and goes down.
I am in Arizona, where we don’t do that (outside of some contrary Injun reservations). It is wonderful.
I am also in IT, and in larger enterprises, something somewhere hiccups due to the changeover. The increase in car accidents and heart attacks is a fact.
From Copilot AI:
“Yes, medical emergencies tend to increase—especially after the spring shift into Daylight Saving Time. The loss of one hour of sleep and disruption to circadian rhythms have been linked to spikes in heart attacks, strokes, car accidents, and workplace injuries.
Here’s what researchers and health experts have found:
🕒 Health Risks of the Spring Forward Shift
Heart Attacks: Studies show a notable rise in heart attacks in the days following the spring transition. The disruption to sleep and biological rhythms appears to trigger cardiovascular stress”
We’ve tried that before and it was a disaster.
Better to end DST altogether vs. making it permanent. Let’s go with “real” time.
Some of us dont like driving home from work at 4:30 pm in the dark, Tom.
There will always be whinners.
It absolutely infuriates me when I see he government trying to make DST permanent. Standard Time is healthier and is natural. DST is nothing more than a money grab by golfing and retail industries. Thank God for Senator Cotton.
And despite what the urban legend is - farmers strongly opposed DST - it *disrupted* farming by giving them an hour less to get goods to market - they *lost* an hour of daylight with DST as they lost an hour of the morning sun.
Bunch of sniveling whiners. DST is wonderful. When they tried it once in the 70s, kids were standing at bus stops in the dark and a host of other problems.
I like it being sunlight till 9 in the summer, and 5pm dark in the winter so I can get inside and have beef stew.
The argument of children going to school in the dark is a ruse. School districts in my state can set their hours for attendance for different grade levels.
We need permanent STANDARD time!
“Fall back” one more time. Then no more clock changes!
AZ doesn’t need any more sun at night
No. Daylight savings time should, as far as the law is concerned, banned from being the standard time recognized by all, all year.
If individuals, companies, schools, cities or counties want to voluntarily adopt some seasonal change of their official starting time of the day (open for business, school, whatever) from one hour to another, of course they are able to. THAT, not changing the clocks, is all that need be “allowed”.
Voluntary adoption of the day officially starting later or earlier is all that is needed, without changing any clocks from standard time.
Ping. IIRC you once advocated this.
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