Thune: ‘No clear path forward’ on permanent daylight savings time legislation
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) says there is “no clear path forward” to pass legislation to make daylight saving time year-round despite the strong support the legislation has from President Trump, who has stepped up pressure on GOP senators to move it.
“The president feels strongly on it like he does a lot of issues,” Thune told Politico. “It’s something we’re having conversations about but there’s no clear path forward or consensus on it yet.”
Trump has made the Sunshine Protection Act, which passed the House by a vote of 308 to 117 in July, a top priority less than a month before Election Day.
“A ridiculous Clock changing process that takes place twice a year, costs our Country a fortune, is bad for Crime, stress on people, Sports, and just about everything else you can imagine,” the president posted to Truth Social on Friday.
“People don’t want to go around changing their Clocks anymore and, besides, far and away, most people like having an hour of extra sunlight in the evening, rather than in the morning,” he added.
Trump took aim at Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) for opposing the legislation, which Cotton says has been tried before and repealed once Americans discovered the hardships of late-winter sunrises in many parts of the country.
The president claimed Cotton is blocking the bill “for reasons unknown” and posted the senator’s private cellphone number on his Truth Social account, which has more than 13 million followers, and urged people to call the Arkansas Republican and press him to drop his opposition.
“Almost everybody wants ‘The Sunshine Protection Act’ to pass, except for Tom Cotton. To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself,” he posted Saturday online.
The bill would allow states to adopt permanent daylight saving time, which is very popular in some states, such as Florida.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is pushing for a vote on the bill in the lame-duck session, which is scheduled for part of November and December.
“I’ve got my Sunshine Protection Act. I’m working on a vote on that. We’re going to have a vote on that. It [lets] states make their own decisions,” he told The Hill.
But the legislation faces broader opposition within the Senate GOP conference than from just Cotton.
“I think there’s more opposition to it than the president realizes,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said Monday. “There’s some real safety concerns, particularly in the more northern and rural states where children get on the school bus at very early hours.”
Thune voted against making daylight savings time year-round when it came up for consideration in the Senate Commerce Committee.
“I’m from a northern clime,” he told reporters earlier this year. “I voted against it in committee.”
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