Congress

Ted Cruz, Senate panel mulls permanent daylight saving time

Published

1 year ago

April 10, 2025

Senators are wading into the thorny issue of whether to “lock the clock” — that is, end the practice of changing the time twice a year to account for the shifting seasons.

At a hearing Thursday, Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz said there was general consensus among his colleagues that Americans should stop changing the clocks by adopting permanent daylight savings time — which makes it light later in the evening and later in the morning — or permanent standard time, which does the opposite. But there isn’t agreement on which standard to embrace.

The Senate unanimously passed legislation in 2022 from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to create permanent daylight savings time without requiring states already on permanent standard time to make the move. The bill’s passage at that time took many lawmakers by surprise, including those who said they would have hurried to the floor to block the request for speedy consideration had they known the measure was coming up for a vote. It later died in the House.

Scott said Thursday that President Donald Trump is “on board to lock the clock.” In December, Trump expressed support for ending the practice of changing time twice a year, but in March said it’s a “50/50 issue.”

He explained in remarks in the Oval Office, “If something is a 50/50 issue, it’s hard to get excited about it. 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.”

A White House spokesperson declined to clarify Trump’s stance further.

But Commerce Committee members also said they wanted to make sure states have latitude to make their own decisions on whether to use permanent daylight or standard time, weighing economic and health tradeoffs.

“There are very real and complicated issues and counterveiling arguments on both sides,” Cruz said. “There is widespread agreement on locking the clock … but the reason we’re holding these hearings is because these are real arguments and they have real impacts on people.”

Lawmakers heard Thursday from advocates on both sides of the issue, including the CEO of the National Golf Course Owner’s Association favoring permanent daylight savings time and a sleep medicine expert backing permanent standard time. Jay Karen, the CEO of the golf association, said that late afternoon golf activities account for a high share of revenue and that permanent daylight savings time would be a boon for outdoor recreation generally, leading to health benefits.

Karin Johnson, the sleep medicine doctor and member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s advocacy committee, said permanent daylight savings time would be a “hidden mandate” that would wake Americans earlier and disrupt their circadian rhythms. She also pointed out that previous attempts to make this switch were abandoned. Permanent standard time would also lead to lower rates of depression and better sleep, she argued.

Cruz didn’t take a clear stance on whether he sided with permanent daylight savings time or standard time, but he argued that changing the clocks twice a year can indeed disrupt sleep.

“This leads to increased risks of health problems, including higher rates of heart attacks, strokes, and even car accidents immediately following the time change,” Cruz said.

Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) said it’s important lawmakers be “thoughtful” about how time changes work state-by-state.

“What works in my home state of Delaware may not work in Washington state,” Blunt Rochester said. “It’s time to figure this out. People across our country are tired of the constant cycle of falling back and springing forward.”

Congress

Clean energy group sets its sights on a new GOP target: Lauren Boebert

Published

6 hours ago

October 7, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A clean energy group is launching a $1.5 million spend against Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), its latest effort this midterm cycle targeting Republicans who actively work against renewables.

The Invest in Tomorrow Coalition’s first ad in the spend, which was obtained by Blue Light News, focuses on an embarrassing incident for Boebert: when she was ejected from a live musical performance of “Beetlejuice” for allegedly vaping, singing and recording the show.

“If Lauren Boebert can’t be trusted in a room full of kids, then she can’t be trusted in the halls of Congress,” the ad says.

The spot makes no mention of clean energy or Boebert’s attacks on the so-called “Green New Scam.” The strategy mimics the group’s previous playbook that it has deployed to help defeat Reps. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) in their Republican primaries earlier this year, as the latter two sought statewide office. The PAC had tried to paint Ogles as an absentee member of Congress and Roy as insufficiently MAGA.

The group, which is backed by solar executives, has become an increasingly forceful player this cycle, which has seen a massive influx of outside spending.

“This industry has been villainized and used as a punching bag at times by the right, and the industry hasn’t always punched back,” said Chris Coffey, the CEO of Tusk Strategies, which is helping run the group. “Maybe when they’re deciding who to villainize next year, they will at least be like, ‘You know what? I don’t need problems with those guys.’”

Boebert’s district is historically deeply red. But Invest in Tomorrow also commissioned a poll, which shows she is underwater: 39% of likely voters view her favorably and 55% view her unfavorably. It also found Boebert leading the district’s Democratic nominee Eileen Laubacher by 5 points.

The poll, conducted by Impact Research from Sept. 21 to 24, polled 403 likely voters and had a margin of error of ±4.8%.

Congress

Trahan unveils AI liability discussion draft

Published

14 hours ago

October 7, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Lori Trahan on Wednesday unveiled a discussion draft for a bill that would make artificial intelligence developers liable when their products cause harm.

The legislation comes after OpenAI’s agents escaped containment and autonomously hacked into AI platform Hugging Face and accessed U.S. government websites.

The Clear Liability for Artificial Intelligence Misconduct Act aims to make it easier for those harmed by so-called rogue AI to bring claims against developers. Trahan’s bill does not preempt new state laws on AI liability — historically a prerequisite for attracting Republican support in the House.

“When someone breaks the law and hurts you, you can take them to court. That shouldn’t change just because the wrongdoer is an AI agent,” Trahan (D-Mass.) said in a statement. “Developers have already built systems capable of acting on their own and causing real damage. The CLAIM Act makes sure they answer for what their systems do.”

Legal experts have warned that existing laws require proof of intent or negligence, standards that can be difficult to show in court when AI models go rogue.

Trahan’s bill would ensure AI developers are unable to argue that their AI systems are incapable of intent. Instead, courts “would presume an AI system acted with the state of mind a person taking the same actions would have had.”

Trahan spokesperson Francis Grubar said work on the CLAIM Act began almost immediately after theJuly introduction of the FRONTIER Act, legislation with Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) that would grant the government power to restrict the deployment of AI models deemed to pose catastrophic risks. While that bill aims to prevent serious harms before they happen, Grubar said the CLAIM Act would address how to impose accountability for existing damages.

Unlike an AI liability proposal announced last week by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Trahan’s legislation would not amend the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Grubar said the CLAIM Act would instead impose clearer liability on a broader range of harms, as well as autonomous or AI-enabled cyberattacks.

The CFFA, an anti-hacking law that bars individuals from accessing a computer without consent, requires proof of intent to hack into a computer system, which can’t be as easily applied to AI agents.

The Hugging Face incident, along with a flurry of other disclosed hacking incidents by rogue AI agents from OpenAI and other AI developers, has sparked a debate over how companies should be held legally liable for their AI systems.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, in an interview with Blue Light News’s Decoded podcast, said there should be a new “liability framework” to hold developers accountable for AI-powered cyberattacks. His comments come after White House officials like Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, who was recently appointed as AI czar by President Donald Trump, previously said that existing product liability laws are sufficient for now in addressing AI’s risks.

Congress

Vance to sit for CBS town hall in Michigan ahead of midterms

Published

14 hours ago

October 7, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Vice President JD Vance will take questions from Michigan voters in a CBS News town hall airing Oct. 17 as the Trump administration prepares a closing message to voters ahead of the midterms.

The town hall comes amid a blitz of campaign events for Vance and President Donald Trump as their party faces multiple headwinds that could cost them control of the House and Senate.

Michigan’s Senate contest between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers has become one of the cycle’s closely watched battleground contests. Michigan also has several competitive House races and will elect a new governor for the first time in eight years.

Vance campaigned in Michigan with Rogers, gubernatorial nominee John James and Mike Bouchard Jr., the GOP nominee in the 10th Congressional District, at an Aug. 31 rally in Sterling Heights. Rep. Lisa McClain also appeared at the event.

The one-hour special, moderated by “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil, will be recorded earlier in the week. Vance and Dokoupil will discuss issues facing voters, including affordability, tariffs, immigration, health care, artificial intelligence, the war with Iran and the state of American democracy, according to CBS News.

The two were scheduled for a town hall interview in March, but the vice president postponed due to the war with Iran.

The vice president’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.