President Trump says Sen. Tom Cotton is blocking a House-passed bill for permanent daylight saving time, leaving Americans without that extra hour of evening light.
President Trump on Friday named Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton as the Republican holding up a permanent daylight saving time plan the House already passed with broad bipartisan support.
In an after-midnight Truth Social post, Trump said the Senate needs to act on the Sunshine Protection Act, which he also calls the “No More Changing of Clocks Act”, and accused Cotton of denying the country an extra hour of evening daylight. Reporting from Washington laid out the clash as the Senate sat idle and the next clock change approached.
The House passed the bill 308-117 on July 14, 2026. Trump made permanent daylight saving time part of his 2024 campaign platform and is now pressing senators to finish the job.
Cotton’s opposition blocks the easy path. Without unanimous consent, the measure would have to clear committee, beat a 60-vote filibuster threshold, and face a recorded vote.
The Senate adjourned Wednesday and is not expected back until after the Nov. 3 midterm election. That schedule all but guarantees Americans will set clocks back an hour on the morning of Nov. 1.
Trump put the blame squarely on the Arkansas Republican.
Trump wrote:
“Unfortunately, it’s being held up by Senator Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, for reasons unknown. People are sick and tired of having to change their Clocks twice a year,”
He added that the House vote showed “Great Bipartisan support” and that both parties want the change.
Trump wrote:
“The House has passed this Bill, 308-117, on July 14, 2026, with Great Bipartisan support. Both Democrats and Republicans want it to happen. It’s now up to the U.S. Senate where it would be another Great Bipartisan Victory.”
Trump argued the twice-a-year switch is costly, inconvenient, and bad for public safety and health. He tied the change to crime, car crashes, heart risk, seasonal depression, kids walking home, family time, sports, retail, tourism, and energy bills.
Trump wrote:
“Republicans in the Senate have to get moving on what I call the ‘No More Changing of Clocks Act,’ officially known as The Sunshine Protection Act, 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,”
He said even PGA Commissioner Brian Rolapp needs more evening light so winter golf tournaments can finish before dark. Trump also claimed most farmers prefer extra evening time for harvest work, and that cities and states with hard-to-reach clocks spend millions on the switch.
On the winter solstice, Monday, Dec. 21, this year, the sun sets as early as 4:31 p.m. in New York City and 4:49 p.m. in Washington. That is the dark evening stretch Trump wants to push back with year-round daylight saving time.
Trump summed up his pitch simply: leave the clocks where they are now and never change them again. He said nobody wants the twice-a-year ritual and called it an issue that can unite Republicans, Democrats, and independents.
Cotton, 49, has said he would “always oppose” the reform. His case rests on winter mornings in his state, not evening convenience on the coasts.
Cotton said:
“For many Arkansans, permanent Daylight Savings Time would mean the sun wouldn’t rise until after 8:00 or even 8:30 a.m. during the dead of winter. Three months out of the year, kids in towns like Bentonville, Fayetteville, and Fort Smith would start school ahead of the sun,”
He also pointed to outdoor workers who start before dawn.
Cotton said:
“Meanwhile, construction workers, farmers, and others who rise before the sun or need the sun to work would be penalized. These workers might go three, four, even five hours in the morning without seeing the sun, which would hurt their quality of life and potentially their safety in the workplace.”
On health, Cotton did not deny that clock changes can hurt. He said the stronger evidence lines up internal body clocks with standard time, not daylight saving time.
Cotton said:
“clock changes can be bad for health, but the best evidence suggests that the natural rhythms of our internal body clocks align more closely with Standard Time than Daylight Savings Time.”
His stance echoes the last major national experiment with year-round daylight time. In 1974, Congress tried it during an oil-import crisis to save energy. The dark winter mornings drew a backlash, and the policy did not last.
Procedure and the calendar now favor delay. Cotton’s no blocks the unanimous-consent shortcut. Full process means committee work, 60 votes to end a filibuster, and a floor vote the chamber is not even in town to hold.
With senators gone until after Nov. 3, the Nov. 1 fall-back is locked in under current law. Trump’s public pressure is aimed at forcing Republican colleagues to treat the House-passed bill as unfinished business rather than a dead letter until next year.
The core dispute is clear. Trump wants permanent evening daylight, cites a lopsided House vote, and says the public is done with the ritual. Cotton says permanent daylight saving time would leave Arkansas children and early-shift workers in the dark for months and that standard time better matches human biology.
One senator’s hold is enough to stop the fast track. Until the Senate returns and either peels off that opposition or runs the long procedural route, the clocks will keep springing forward and falling back, exactly the cycle Trump says voters want ended for good.
When the House already voted 308-117 and the president is demanding action, a single roadblock should not be the last word on a policy most Americans experience twice a year and few defend.
