Congress

Congress divided on permanent daylight saving time despite Trump endorsement

Published

1 year ago

April 30, 2025

The Senate Commerce Committee appeared poised Wednesday morning to narrowly advance a bill to make daylight saving time permanent — a sign that lawmakers are coalescing around ending the practice of changing clocks twice a year. But the panel still remains deeply divided over whether to embrace permanent daylight saving time or standard time.

“There are times when you have a hearing on a bill, and you’re trying to move forward with a bill, and you think there’s a clear right answer — this is not one of those times, at least for me,” said committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas). “The testimony we heard at the hearing … persuaded me that we should lock the clock, that the practice of springing forward and falling backward every year doesn’t make sense.”

Cruz went on to vote to advance the legislation from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), which would move to make daylight saving time the default, resulting in more daylight in the evening hours with less in the morning, and bring to a halt biannual clock adjustments. Cruz amended the bill beforehand to allow a two-year window for states to decide whether or not they want to use daylight saving time or standard time permanently.

President Donald Trump earlier this month endorsed daylight saving time following a hearing on the matter.

Ultimately, the 16-12 vote will have to be repeated at a later date when more senators are physically present: too many voted by proxy. The final tally, though, provided an important window into where lawmakers currently stand.

The vote breakdown on either side of the issue did not fall at all neatly along party lines. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas were among the Republicans who voted “no.” So did Democrats including Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota — a member of her party’s leadership team — alongside Sens. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois.

Meanwhile, Republicans joining Cruz in voting “yes” included Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Sens. John Curtis of Utah and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming. Democrats supporting moving forward with the bill included ranking member Maria Cantwell of Washington, Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts — a longtime advocate of the proposal — and Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii — who is running to be the next Democratic whip.

There are “serious arguments on both sides” on whether to use daylight saving or standard time, Cruz said, citing witness testimony from the panel’s hearing this month about economic benefits for daylight saving time for golf courses and entertainment venues, while doctors argued more morning light with standard time can be better for health.

“Reasonable people can differ,” Cruz said, noting Texas is considering a referendum on the issue that he hopes will occur and making the case that states should have leeway to decide.

Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who opposed the bill Wednesday, proposed but quickly withdrew an amendment that would have renamed the bill the “Make America Rested Again Act” and made permanent standard time the law of the land. Permanent daylight saving time, he argued, would make the sun rise after 9 a.m. in some of parts of his state in the winter months. Young also said there should be more debate and analysis on whether to use permanent standard or daylight time.

“Moving to permanent standard time is widely recognized as the healthiest option for promoting better sleep, alertness and overall well-being,” Young said. “After surveying constituents across Indiana in recent weeks, it’s clear to me there is no single right way to approach the issue of time. Regional differences play an important factor in these decisions.”

The Commerce Committee hearing, followed quickly by Trump’s comments in favor of permanent daylight saving time, have reignited a lobbying battle, with golf and retail interests favoring daylight saving time and sleep doctors and Christian radio broadcasters favoring standard time.

The Senate in 2022 passed legislation to make daylight saving time the status quo by unanimous consent, a move that surprised some senators since the procedure is usually reserved for noncontroversial issues. It died in the House.

Congress

Senate’s summer pileup is threatening a quick recess escape

Published

8 hours ago

August 6, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Ideally, the Senate would be adjourning for a five-week break in less than 24 hours.

Instead, Republican senators are still navigating what Majority Leader John Thune described as a “train wreck” as they face a pileup of legislation, key nominations and public pressure from President Donald Trump and angry conservatives to show progress on a GOP election bill Trump views as his “No. 1 priority.”

They’re heading into Thursday — when the scent of jet fumes typically starts wafting through the halls of Congress — without a deal that would let them speed up votes on a government funding bill or long-stalled Russia sanctions bill.

Meanwhile, Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination is still stuck in limbo after he came to the Capitol Wednesday for a roughly hourlong meeting with two key Republican holdouts.

That said, the general outlines of a deal that would allow senators to quickly get out of Washington and onto the campaign trail has started taking shape, even as senators and aides acknowledged they might have to stick around at least a little bit longer than they’d hoped.

“Don’t kill the vibe — it’s starting to pick up,” Thune said in an interview, while cautioning that “you’re not going to be smelling those [jet fumes] anytime real soon. … We’ve obviously got, like I said, a stack of stuff to do.”

One key issue Republicans haven’t yet settled is a new party-line spending bill that would pump billions of dollars into the Pentagon, to ailing farmers and into some elections-related spending that could take some of the Trump-fueled pressure off — even as several people with knowledge of the discussions said the votes aren’t there.

Thune hasn’t formally ruled out taking up a budget blueprint for the GOP bill, saying Wednesday it was “hard to say at this point” if he had the votes. But he indicated there was progress behind the scenes toward an exit strategy that would allow Republicans to start their recess with minimal internal friction.

“There’s not clarity, but it’s getting less cloudy if you put it that way,” Thune said.

Three people granted anonymity to discuss internal discussions said that endgame would not involve the time-consuming process of advancing a budget, but instead calling up a vote related to the SAVE America Act, the Trump-backed elections bill.

Republican leaders are hoping that holding a vote on the elections proposal, at the Senate’s usual 60-vote threshold for legislation, will let them hammer Democrats as the holdup while satisfying Republicans who have been frustrated over the lack of progress and have threatened to oppose leaving town.

“We’re looking at options there,” Thune said about possible SAVE America-related votes.

He added that it “remains to be seen” if that would be enough to placate Trump-allied rabble-rousers, “but we’ve had a number of conversations now about how we get the votes people feel are necessary.”

A key MAGA ally, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, posted a social media video Wednesday thanking Thune, saying that the conversation has moved in a “favorable direction” and that Republicans were discussing “what procedural vehicle to use in order to get this thing done.”

Thune has several other obstacles to clear besides the SAVE America fight.

Senators want an agreement that would let them extend government funding into mid-December, pass a sanctions bill targeting Russia in honor of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, confirm dozens of Trump nominees, including Blanche, and start work on a bipartisan college sports bill.

The highest drama surrounds Blanche, who met Wednesday with GOP Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Neither said afterward how they would vote on his nomination. With Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and every Democrat expected to oppose Blanche, and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) out for health reasons, he will need to win support from at least one of the two.

The legislative targets have issues, too: Republicans are grappling with intraparty wrangling over hemp language included in the stopgap bill, and Democrats are working through concerns in their ranks about the sanctions bill.

They also want to know if Republicans are going to force them to take a vote on cryptocurrency legislation that many Democrats currently oppose. They are eager to avoid taking that vote ahead of the recess as bipartisan talks happen behind the scenes — especially because a failed vote could potentially fuel tens of millions of dollars of campaign spending against Democratic opponents by industry allies.

Democrats are also looking for signals from Republicans about whether they will move forward with the party-line budget plan. But it was clear by Wednesday afternoon that major obstacles remained.

One GOP senator said Wednesday evening that “there won’t be the votes to do reconciliation and that will simplify things” for the rest of the schedule.

At a Senate GOP lunch meeting, Budget Chair Ron Johnson of Wisconsin presented his ideas for the budget blueprint. It would closely mirror a version that the House advanced last month, but it would also instruct a host of new committees to help draft the bill — expanding the range of issues Democrats could force vulnerable GOP incumbents to take tough votes on just months before the midterms.

Besides ongoing intra-GOP disputes about the amount of Pentagon funding to include and whether to offset the spending with cuts elsewhere, Thune is dealing with senators who aren’t convinced that they should force the issue just months before voters cast ballots.

Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who described himself as a “lean no” on the budget, said his views were being influenced by wanting to protect vulnerable colleagues.

“There’s only like five members of my conference that I care about. and they’re the ones who are running in at-risk states,” he said.

Asked if he would vote “no” to protect them, Tillis added, “I’m going to support my members who are up for election. They’re the most important priority right now.”

Congress

Trump urges GOP senators to back off hemp ban

Published

10 hours ago

August 5, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump and top White House officials are privately lobbying Republican senators to delay a ban on intoxicating hemp that’s set to kick in this fall.

At the Trump administration’s urging, the government funding patch the Senate is working to pass this week would push off the forthcoming ban of some cannabis products derived from hemp. But several Republican senators are demanding a vote to strip the delay out and let that prohibition kick in come November.

They’re hearing from the White House about it.

Trump called Sen. Ted Budd on Tuesday night, after the North Carolina Republican filed an amendment to ensure the ban kicks in as mandated on Nov. 12, according to a Senate aide granted anonymity to describe the private discussion. On the call, the president discussed creating a federal regulatory framework for hemp but did not ask Budd to withdraw his amendment, the individual added.

“I’ve been asked by lots of people to stand down on this amendment,” Budd told reporters Wednesday.

Budd noted that the Trump administration has had almost nine months to come up with a plan for implementing the ban.

“So why all of a sudden pop up for some seemingly innocent delay?” he asked, accusing the White House of instead preparing to “jam this on some must-pass” funding package at year’s end to further delay the prohibition.

A White House official granted anonymity to discuss the private debate said the Trump administration is seeking “a modest four-week delay” through the Dec. 11 expiration of the funding patch “to allow for productive conversations to continue.” Some synthetic cannabis products would be permanently banned in the meantime, the official added.

The administration lobbying has successfully swayed some Senate Republicans, such as Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who said in an interview that “the White House has committed to me that they’re committed to regulate the industry.”

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of hemp-rich Kentucky said the issue came up “in a big way” during Senate Republicans’ private lunch meeting Wednesday. Paul said he spoke in support of delaying the ban and said those arguing for a delay “aren’t very rational.”

“They’re wanting to hold up the funding for the government over one month,” he said. “It’s kind of insane.”

Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.

Congress

Holdouts meet with Blanche

Published

12 hours ago

August 5, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is in the Capitol meeting with holdout GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Bill Cassidy of Louisiania as he tries to lock down their support for his confirmation as permanent leader of the Justice Department.