Protecting 🌞?

Trump: For many years, the vast Majority of Americans have asked to make Daylight Saving Time permanent, but no Administration has been able to get it done, until now. I am proud to announce that the House of Representatives has passed the Bill, and it has now gone to the Senate… pic.twitter.com/Kk5U9yxYdx

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 4, 2026

Trump: For many years, the vast Majority of Americans have asked to make Daylight Saving Time permanent, but no Administration has been able to get it done, until now. I am proud to announce that the House of Representatives has passed the Bill, and it has now gone to the Senate for final approval. People are sick and tired of having to change their clocks twice a year. It is foolish, inconvenient and, in some cases, very costly. For Cities and States with Watchtowers, and hard to reach places, it costs Millions of Dollars. A recent case was made that it is also bad for your health in the anxiety it creates. Leading Medical, Crime, and Economic Studies have shown that ceasing the biannual time change, giving us one extra hour of natural sunlight in the evenings, will help Decrease Robbery and Murder Rates, Reduce Car Accidents (especially those involving Pedestrians!), Lower Risk for Cardiac Issues, Stroke, and Seasonal Depression, Make It Safer for Children to Walk Home from School, Increase Time with your Family, Strongly Support Extracurricular Activities, Boost the Sports, Fitness, Tourism, Retail, and Restaurant Industries (and more!), and Save Money on Energy Bills, because everyone will be enjoying an EXTRA HOUR OF DAYLIGHT. In other words, leave it as it is now, and never change again. This is an issue that Republicans, Democrats, and Independents can unite behind. I am asking Republican Senators to release their holds, and allow the hotline to clear on the Republican side. LET'S PASS THE SUNSHINE PROTECTION ACT, ASAP.

I remember this from 1973. 

In cities such as Detroit, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Seattle, the sun didn’t rise until around 9 a.m. “Almost everybody [was] getting up in the dark and going to work and to school in the dark,” Prerau says.

Newspapers wrote about the disorientation. “Commuter trains from New Jersey were delayed, many school children missed their free breakfasts, some workers walked to subways and buses with trepidation, and many people felt strange yesterday as the day began an hour earlier for most in an eerie darkness,” The New York Times reported on January 8, 1974.

Safety fears escalated quickly. Prerau notes that a 16‑year‑old Chicago boy was struck and killed on his way to school and that other children died in predawn accidents in Virginia, Ohio, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and California. The worst cluster occurred in Florida, where eight children were killed in the first weeks of winter DST, compared with two during the same period the previous year.

Farm families described children “waiting on dark country roads for buses as cars were whizzing past them,” Prerau says, while in cities, parents worried about kids navigating abandoned streets before sunrise. In response, an insurance company handed out reflective “hot dots” for children’s coats, and according to The New York Times, Dallas schools spent $9,000 on reflector signs. Some schools even delayed their start times.

Public opinion on the clock change flipped within a few months. A University of Chicago survey found support for year‑round DST dropped from 79 percent in December to 42 percent in February. “There seemed to be some indication that there were more deaths and everyone got a little nervous,” a House staffer told The New York Times.

Calls for repeal soon began in Congress, according to the February 3, 1974, Times article. “It’s time to recognize that we may well have made a mistake,” Senator Dick Clark of Iowa said.

By fall 1974, Congress repealed year-round daylight saving time, and President Gerald Ford signed the amendment on October 5, 1974. “It was a big national issue all of a sudden, and it hadn’t really been one when it passed,” Prerau says.

If history repeats itself and the Senate passes the Sunshine Protection Act (and why shouldn’t they? They’re ignoring everything else Americans want, as well as history.), it will start rhyming in very short order.

https://t.co/4zU5OaZmPR pic.twitter.com/r7BPE03X0r

— FLFunYo (@FLFunYo) August 5, 2026