Americans are virtually certain to turn their clocks back again on Nov. 1, with legislation to make daylight saving time permanent stalled in the Senate despite overwhelming House approval and an increasingly aggressive campaign by President Donald Trump to get the measure passed.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has expressed serious doubts that the Sunshine Protection Act can attract the 60 votes necessary to advance through the Senate, leaving the bipartisan measure without a clear path forward before this year’s return to standard time.

The timing alone effectively guarantees another clock change. The Senate adjourned last week ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections and is holding only pro forma sessions during the recess. Senators are not expected to resume their regular legislative schedule until the week of Nov. 9 — more than a week after daylight saving time ends.

Under current federal law, daylight saving time will end at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1. In most of the country, clocks will move back one hour, giving Americans the familiar extra hour of sleep while bringing sunset an hour earlier.

The House overwhelmingly approved the Sunshine Protection Act in July by a bipartisan 308-117 vote, with 193 Republicans and 114 Democrats supporting the measure. The legislation would end the twice-a-year clock changes and establish daylight saving time as the year-round standard for most of the country.

States that already remain on standard time throughout the year would not be forced to adopt daylight saving time, and the legislation provides a mechanism for states to choose permanent standard time instead.

Trump has thrown his weight behind the effort, repeatedly pressing Senate Republicans to act and portraying the issue as a simple quality-of-life change that enjoys broad public support. He has argued that additional evening daylight would benefit families, businesses, sports and recreation while also improving public safety.

The president’s campaign for permanent daylight saving time has become unusually intense in recent days, particularly because of opposition from Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a Republican who is ordinarily a close Trump ally.

“Everybody in Arkansas, Tom Cotton, a friend of mine, is holding up a very important Bill. It’s called, ‘The Sunshine Protection Act’ or, ‘We Don’t Want to Change Our Clocks Twice a Year Act,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social over the weekend.

Trump subsequently urged Arkansas residents to contact Cotton and publicly posted what he identified as the senator’s personal cellphone number.

“To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself,” Trump said.

The pressure campaign quickly attracted widespread attention, and Cotton’s voicemail was reportedly full after Trump posted the number. Cotton, however, has shown no indication that he intends to change his position.

Cotton agrees that changing clocks twice each year is unpopular, but he strongly opposes making daylight saving time permanent. His principal concern is that doing so would push sunrise much later during winter, forcing many children to travel to school before daylight and requiring workers to commute in darkness.

“No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter. Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.”

The disagreement reflects the larger obstacle that has repeatedly prevented Congress from settling the daylight saving time debate: while there is substantial support for ending the twice-yearly clock changes, lawmakers remain divided over which time should become permanent.

Supporters of permanent daylight saving time favor keeping more sunlight in the afternoon and evening, arguing that later sunsets encourage outdoor activity, recreation and consumer spending. Businesses connected to golf and other outdoor activities have been among the proposal’s supporters.

Opponents argue that standard time more closely follows the body’s natural circadian rhythm and avoids exceptionally late winter sunrises, particularly in northern parts of the country. Parents and school-safety advocates have also raised concerns about children waiting for buses or walking to school in darkness.

Those geographical differences have complicated the politics of the bill. Senators representing southern and coastal states have generally shown greater enthusiasm for permanent daylight saving time, while some lawmakers from northern states have been more skeptical because winter sunrise already comes relatively late in their communities.

Thune, whose home state of South Dakota would experience particularly late winter sunrises under permanent daylight saving time, has acknowledged that concern. He previously voted against the proposal in committee and has questioned whether supporters can assemble the 60 Senate votes needed to overcome procedural hurdles.

Other Republican senators have also voiced reservations, while Democrats are divided as well, making the dispute considerably less partisan than many other issues currently before Congress.

Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri said Monday that he favors having more daylight later in the day but remains uncertain that Congress can reach an agreement on the legislation. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana has also expressed opposition to the permanent daylight saving time approach.

The United States has tried permanent daylight saving time before. Congress enacted year-round daylight saving time during the 1970s energy crisis, but the experiment quickly became unpopular, particularly as Americans encountered dark winter mornings. Congress ultimately reversed course.

Advocates say circumstances have changed considerably since then and argue that Americans increasingly organize work, school, shopping and recreation around evening hours. Critics contend that the basic problem of winter darkness in the morning has not changed at all.

The current legislation has been championed in the House by Florida Republicans Vern Buchanan and Greg Steube and in the Senate by Sen. Rick Scott of Florida. Florida lawmakers have pursued the change for years; the state approved its own Sunshine Protection Act in 2018, but federal law prevents Florida from implementing permanent daylight saving time without congressional action.

Steube celebrated the House vote in July as the culmination of an effort he began while serving in the Florida Legislature, recalling that frustration over the clock change first caught his attention during a conversation in a barbershop years ago.

Trump has continued to insist that the Senate should finish the job, presenting permanent daylight saving time as a broadly popular accomplishment Congress could deliver before the midterms. The White House has described the proposal as a bipartisan reform that would preserve evening daylight when Americans are most likely to be awake and active.

But barring an unexpected development while the Senate is away, the immediate question has effectively been settled for this year. Most Americans will once again move their clocks back one hour at 2 a.m. on Nov. 1, while the larger battle over whether the country should ever have to do it again remains unresolved.

{Matzav.com}