Trump Self-Soothes by Fiddling With Clocks as Agenda Implodes
The Daily Beast • • nation
Key Points:
- President Donald Trump expressed strong support for making daylight saving time permanent, highlighting its potential benefits such as boosting economic activity, improving safety, and reducing costs associated with changing clocks twice a year.
- The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted overwhelmingly (48 to 1) in favor of a bill to adopt permanent daylight saving time, included in the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act currently under consideration in the U.S. House.
- Florida Republican Vern Buchanan emphasized that ending the biannual clock change would improve public health, reduce traffic accidents, and encourage outdoor activity, while some Democrats, like California’s Nanette Barragán, raised concerns about potential health impacts.
- Critics, including Senator Tom Cotton, warned that permanent daylight saving time could result in very late winter sunrises, causing dark and dismal mornings in parts of the Midwest and eastern United States.
- Public opinion is mixed, with a recent poll showing 47% oppose the current daylight saving system and only 12% favoring its observance; the debate reflects longstanding regional and lifestyle differences regarding time changes.