On August 12, 2026, President Donald Trump issued a forceful appeal for the Senate to act on legislation that would end the practice of adjusting clocks twice each year, pairing his request with an eyebrow-raising assertion: locking the country into daylight saving time year-round could bring the murder rate down. The president’s statement came as the Sunshine Protection Act sits in the upper chamber following its mid-July passage in the House, where lawmakers backed the measure 308-117.
In a Truth Social message, Trump laid out an expansive roster of advantages he believes the switch would deliver, from cutting traffic fatalities and heart attack risk to easing depression and helping shops and restaurants thrive. He declared that the public has grown weary of resetting timepieces and described the proposal as something that “Republicans, Democrats, and Independents can unite behind.”
A 2024 Campaign Pledge Advancing Toward Reality
Trump explicitly committed during his 2024 run for the White House to eliminate the biannual ritual, and the Sunshine Protection Act now serves as the mechanism to honor that vow. After the House delivered a strong cross-party margin in mid-July, the president urged Senate Republicans in capital letters to move “ASAP,” framing the legislation as long overdue and noting that prior administrations had not been able to get it done.
The measure has been referred to the upper chamber’s panel on commerce, science, and transportation matters, the standard gateway before a vote on the floor. The measure’s fate echoes an earlier attempt in March 2022, when senators unanimously approved a similar proposal only to watch it collapse in the House amid a stalemate over whether to fix the nation on daylight saving or standard time permanently. The current legislation settles that question by choosing the daylight option, maintaining summer hours throughout the calendar rather than falling back each November.
Examining the Murder Rate Argument
Trump’s most provocative contention was his suggestion that enacting the change would help lower both robbery and murder. On robberies, the claim rests on solid academic ground. A 2015 study in The Review of Economics and Statistics found that when clocks spring forward, robbery rates fall about seven percent across the full day and about 27 percent during the evening hour that gains sunlight — the flip side being that the autumn rollback returns those hours to darkness.
The homicide connection is far less certain. A 2012 working paper out of Stanford observed a pronounced decline in killings near sunset following the spring shift, but the authors themselves acknowledged the finding lacked statistical significance upon deeper review. A 2024 examination covering 11 American cities, published in Lighting Research & Technology, turned up no substantial link between daylight hours and homicide rates, though it did confirm a stronger connection to robbery reductions. Research in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state likewise found no significant impact of daylight saving time on homicide rates per 100,000 inhabitants.
In essence, the scholarship confirms that extended evening light discourages robbery. The homicide claim lacks parallel support in the data.
The Current Patchwork and Historical Roots
Federal statute sets the schedule but does not compel every jurisdiction to comply. Under today’s framework, timepieces move ahead on March’s second Sunday at 2 a.m. and retreat on the first Sunday in November. Most of Arizona opts out, though the Navajo Nation inside that state does participate. Hawaii sticks to standard time all year, as do Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The practice itself dates to 1916, when Germany adopted it to save coal during World War I. The United States enacted the Standard Time Act two years later, simultaneously establishing the country’s five federal time zones. Congress imposed a uniform national schedule in 1966, cementing the twice-annual ritual that has persisted for six decades.
A Rare Unifying Issue?
Trump positioned the Sunshine Protection Act as a chance for cooperation across ideological lines during a period marked by sharp political fractures. The House tally — 308 in favor, 117 opposed — suggests genuine cross-aisle appetite. The Senate is another matter. The bill needs 60 votes, and several Republicans have balked: Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton has invoked the failed 1974 experiment, when children walked to school in the dark, and Montana Sen. Steve Daines has said the plan “is not going to work for us” because of late winter sunrises. Majority Leader John Thune has said only that it “remains to be seen” whether the votes are there, and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine opposes the bill outright.
With the Senate in recess until September 14, the legislation awaits committee action, leaving millions of Americans uncertain whether they will once again adjust their clocks on a Sunday morning in March 2027.
