Push for permanent US daylight saving time frozen as Trump says Americans are divided

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A three-year congressional effort to make daylight saving time permanent in the United States appears to have halted, with President Donald Trump saying on Thursday that Americans are evenly divided over the issue.

Daylight saving time - putting the clocks forward one hour during the summer half of the year to make the most of the longer evenings - has been in place in nearly all of the United States since the 1960s, but proponents have pushed to make it year-round.

In March 2022, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to make daylight saving time permanent but the effort stalled in the House of Representatives after lawmakers said they could not reach consensus. A bipartisan group of 16 senators in January made a new push to make daylight saving time permanent but Congress has held no hearings.

Americans resume daylight saving time on Sunday.

Supporters of remaining on daylight saving time argue it would lead to brighter evenings and more economic activity during the winter months. Critics say it would force children to walk to school in darkness, since the measure would mean experiencing sunrise an hour later.

Trump in December said the Republican Party "will use its best efforts" to end daylight saving time, which he called "inconvenient, and very costly to our nation."

But on Thursday he suggested no action was likely.

"This should be the easiest one of all, but it's a 50-50 issue. If something's a 50-50 issue, it's hard to get excited. I assume people would like to have more light later, but some people want to have more light earlier, because they don't want to take their kids to school in the dark," Trump said.

"A lot of people like it one way, a lot of people like it the other way, it's very even. And usually I find when that's the case -- what else do we have to?"

Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville said proponents will keep trying. "We're going to push it hard," he told Reuters.

Lawmakers are as divided as the American public - some want to stay on standard time year-round, more are on record calling for remaining on daylight saving time all year, while others want to keep the status quo.

Proponents of eliminating daylight saving time altogether say the twice-annual changing of clocks causes sleep disturbance and health issues.

Year-round daylight saving time was used during World War Two and adopted again in 1973 in a bid to reduce energy use because of an oil embargo, but was unpopular and was repealed a year later.

Since 2015, about 30 states have introduced or passed legislation to end the twice-yearly changing of clocks, with some states proposing to do it only if neighboring states do the same.

(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)