Last Updated on December 15, 2024 3:18 pm
President-elect Donald Trump has the elimination of Daylight Saving Time in mind during his next tenure.
In a post on Truth Social on Friday he stated, “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 is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.”
In March 2022, the Senate approved legislation called The Sunshine Protection Act, that would make daylight saving time permanent in the U.S. starting in 2023 – meaning no more “spring forward” in early March. The measure never received a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives.
According to timeanddate.com, “In the U.S., Daylight Saving Time – or “fast time”, as it was called then – was first introduced in 1918 when President Woodrow Wilson signed it into law to support the war effort during World War I.”
For modern times the website notes “In the United States, DST caused widespread confusion from 1945 to 1966 for trains, buses, and the broadcasting industry because states and localities were free to choose when and if they would observe DST. Congress decided to end the confusion and establish the Uniform Time Act of 1966 that stated DST would begin on the last Sunday of April and end on the last Sunday of October. However, states still had the ability to be exempt from DST by passing a local ordinance.
The U.S. Congress extended DST to a period of ten months in 1974 and eight months in 1975, in hopes to save energy following the 1973 oil embargo. The trial period showed that DST saved the energy equivalent of 10,000 barrels of oil each day.”
In 2005 Congress changed Daylight Saving Time to begin on the second Sunday of March and end on the first Sunday of November.
