K, look, we hear ya — daylight saving time tends to be a major bummer for a lot of folks.
And despite his personal stance, President Donald Trump has acknowledged that Americans are divided on daylight saving time.
That makes legislative action a bit of a tough fight, no matter what side of aisle you’re on. In early March, 2025, he commented that it’s “hard to get excited” about changing DST, reflecting the lack of consensus among the public and lawmakers.
It’s a bit of a tough hill to die on, so to speak. Kalshi, a federally regulated prediction market, doesn’t think it’s likely happen. Traders on the platform give only a 23% chance of a bill becoming law.
That said, Daylight Saving Time is annoying to the American public — where we go: “Wait, wait, I wake up when?” — which I’m personally still feeling the impacts of, because my body has no concept of when to wake up now, much to the chagrin of my employers.
Stalled legislative effort
The Sunshine Protection Act, a bipartisan bill aiming to make DST permanent, unanimously passed the Senate in March 2022 but stalled in the House due to differing opinions. As of February 2025, the act has been reintroduced in both chambers of Congress but has yet to advance. Given the current political landscape, it’s unlikely that DST will be made permanent this year.
Given the current political landscape and public opinion, it is unlikely that DST will be made permanent this year. The lack of consensus and legislative momentum suggests that the biannual clock changes will continue for the foreseeable future.
Long, confusing history of DST
The history of Daylight Saving Time was allegedly (and this is disputed) first proposed by Benjamin Franklin in 1784 as a way to save candles, but the idea wasn’t seriously implemented until World War I. Germany was the first country to adopt DST in 1916 to conserve fuel, and many others, including the U.S., followed.
The U.S. introduced DST in 1918, but repealed it after the war.
It returned during World War II and later became standardized under the Uniform Time Act of 1966. The dates for DST have shifted over time, with the most recent change in 2007 extending it from March to November.
Politically, it’s been an issue for decades. The U.S. tried it in the 70s and it didn’t go over so well.
Still, there has been a seemingly continuous war about who is or is not in favor of maintaining DST.
As someone who has to wake up at random hours and head into the newsroom, I’m sorry to say that it is largely irrelevant to me — and I’m not really in the minority.
