House

GOP panel looks to advance legislation making daylight saving permanent

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by Sudiksha Kochi - 05/19/26 6:36 PM ET

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by Sudiksha Kochi - 05/19/26 6:36 PM ET

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Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are planning to move ahead with legislation that would make “springing forward” permanent across the U.S.

Matthew VanHyfte, a spokesperson for the committee’s Republicans, told The Hill that the panel plans to notice on Wednesday evening a full markup of the bill that will “list the legislation that includes the language from the Sunshine Protection Act,” which would keep the country on daylight saving time year-round.

The Washington Post first reported that House Republicans were planning to adopt the legislation. The committee is looking to add it to a larger transportation funding package, the outlet reported.

President Trump has routinely called for Congress to pass legislation on daylight saving time. Last year, he wrote in a Truth Social post that “The House and Senate should push hard for more Daylight at the end of a day. Very popular and, most importantly, no more changing of the clocks, a big inconvenience and, for our government, A VERY COSTLY EVENT!!!”

But such legislation has largely stalled on Capitol Hill.

The Senate tried to fast-track the Sunshine Protection Act last year, only for Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) to thwart the effort. He said at the time that, “Sometimes we have to live with an uneasy compromise between competing priorities and interests. That’s doubly true when considering how the movement of the stars and the planets affect the lives of 350 million souls spread across our vast continental nation.”

Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) had introduced the Daylight Act of 2026 earlier this year, which would move clocks forward by half an hour rather than a full hour. The bill has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and no action has been taken on it since.

VanHyfte told The Washington Post in a statement that addressing daylight saving time “has been a priority for a number of members for a while now.”

“The Committee held a hearing last November and heard testimony that an extra hour of sun at the end of the day boosts economic activity, and there is evidence that changing time is a highway safety concern, with a surge of traffic fatalities occurring the week following time changes. The Committee led legislation that extended DST in 2007 and is examining ways to further address it now,” he added.

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