News Brief
Trump Plans To Abolish 'Costly' Daylight Saving Time: What It Means For The US
US president-elect Donald Trump.
United States President-elect Donald Trump announced on Friday (13 December) that he would work to abolish the "inconvenient" practice of shifting clocks forward by an hour each spring, citing its "unnecessary financial burden" on the country.
"The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn't! Daylight Saving Time (DST) is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation," Trump posted on his website, Truth Social.
Initially adopted in US during World War I, DST faced backlash from farmers struggling to deliver produce to morning markets and was swiftly repealed.
While states experimented with variations, it was not reinstated nationally until 1967.
In 2022, the Democratic-led US Senate proposed a bill similar to Trump's plan to end the biannual clock adjustments, advocating for a "new, permanent standard time."
But The Sunshine Protection Act called for the opposite switch -- moving permanently to DST rather than eliminating it -- to usher in brighter evenings, and fewer journeys home in the dark for school children and office workers.
The bill never made it to President Joe Biden's desk, as it was not taken up in the Republican-led House.
Regardless of the approach, adopting a single permanent time would eliminate the need for Americans to adjust clocks forward in spring and back in winter.
The practice is popularly known as "springing forward" and "falling back."
Support for permanent DST has grown, particularly among Northeastern US politicians and lobbyists, citing harsh winter morning conditions as a driving factor.
"It's really straightforward. Cutting back on the sun during the fall and winter is a drain on the American people and does little to nothing to help them," Rubio said in a statement ahead of the vote.
"It's time we retire this tired tradition." Rubio said the United States sees an increase in heart attacks and road accidents in the week that follows the changing of the clocks.
The proposed changes would not impact regions like Hawaii, most of Arizona, the Navajo Nation, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands, as they do not spring forward in summer.
