A renewed push by President Donald Trump and House Republicans to make daylight saving time permanent has advanced in Congress, drawing concern from Orthodox Jewish leaders who warn that the change would push sunrise past 8 and even 9 a.m. in major cities for weeks at a time, throwing morning davening into crisis for hundreds of thousands of frum Jews.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 48 to 1 last Thursday to advance the Sunshine Protection Act, folded into a broader transportation bill, the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act. The legislation, introduced by Senator Rick Scott and Representative Vern Buchanan, both Florida Republicans, would lock the country into daylight saving time year-round, ending the twice-yearly clock changes. States would retain the option to opt out and remain on standard time.

Trump applauded the committee vote on Truth Social and pledged to “work very hard” to pass the bill. “It’s time that people can stop worrying about the ‘Clock,’ not to mention all of the work and money that is spent on this ridiculous, twice yearly production,” he wrote. “We are going with the far more popular alternative, Saving Daylight, which gives you a longer, brighter Day — And who can be against that — This is an easy one!”

The Senate companion bill has 18 bipartisan cosponsors, and the House version has 32.

The proposal has alarmed Orthodox advocacy groups, which warn that permanent DST would clash with the fundamental halachic requirement that shacharis be davened only after haneitz hachamah. Under permanent daylight saving time, sunrise in New York would fall after 8 a.m. for nearly two months during the winter, and would arrive after 9 a.m. in cities like Detroit for several weeks. That would leave many working men unable to daven with a minyan and arrive at the office by 9 a.m., a conflict that would last for months rather than the narrow window of inconvenience under the current system.

Agudath Israel of America, which led the successful campaign against the last permanent-DST push in 2022, has warned that the change would cause many shuls to struggle to assemble a morning minyan and would force working Yidden to choose between davening b’tzibbur and their parnassah. The organization circulated a legislative memorandum on Capitol Hill at the time, including a survey of sunrise times in cities across the country and an analysis of zmanim by Rabbi Dovid Heber of Baltimore.

The halachic stakes were spelled out decades ago by Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l, who in a 1971 teshuva sent to then-Agudath Israel president Rabbi Moshe Sherer described the extra winter hour of permanent DST as a crisis that would jeopardize the morning tefillos of observant Jews for months each year. The 1970s experiment with permanent DST was repealed by Congress in part because of widespread reports of children being struck by cars while walking to school in the dark, a concern that would immediately return if DST is enacted.

Trump’s position on the issue has shifted. In December 2024, he posted on Truth Social that the Republican Party should “eliminate Daylight Saving Time,” a stance that, while still disruptive, would have been less damaging to morning tefillah. He reversed course earlier this year, now backing permanent DST. The earlier effort to enact permanent DST passed the Senate unanimously in March 2022 but stalled in the House after lawmakers said they could not reach consensus, in part because of Orthodox community advocacy.

Sleep researchers and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine have separately argued that permanent standard time, not permanent DST, would be the healthier option, citing circadian rhythm disruption. The Health and Human Services Department under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been associated with that view, which has gained traction among supporters of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

It remains uncertain whether the bill will clear the full House and Senate and reach Trump’s desk. Orthodox groups are expected to mobilize their advocacy networks once again as the legislation moves to the House floor.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)