President Donald Trump is pushing to make daylight saving time permanent, arguing that getting rid of the twice-yearly time change would reduce the murder rate across the country.

Trump urged the Senate to “PASS THE SUNSHINE PROTECTION ACT,” which cleared the House last month in a 308-117 vote and would keep daylight saving time permanent instead of shifting the clocks back an hour each fall.

“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 properly 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,” Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social.

The president noted that people are “sick and tired of having to change their clocks twice a year,” and rattled off a wide-ranging list of potential benefits from ending the century-old practice, including reducing crime, improving health, and preventing traffic accidents.

“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 Shool, Increase Time with your Family, Strong Support Extracurricular Activities, Be a Big Boost to Sports, Fitness, Tourism, Retail, and the Restaurant Industries (and more!), and Save Money on Energy Bills, because everyone will be enjoying an EXTRA HOUR OF DAYLIGHT,” Trump wrote.

Trump added: “In other words, leave it as it is now, and never change again.”

The president then pitched the bill as a bipartisan issue that “Republicans, Dumocrats, and Independents can unite behind.”

As it stands, daylight saving time begins on the second Sunday in March, when clocks move forward by one hour at 2 a.m. The change allows for more sunlight hours during the summer, and when clocks shift back one hour on the first Sunday in November, mornings become lighter.

The system is governed by federal law, though states are not required to follow it. Neither Arizona nor Hawaii observe daylight saving time, and U.S. territories Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands also stay on standard time year-round.

Trump ran for president in 2024 on the promise that he would make daylight saving time permanent.

While Trump’s sweeping list of benefits may seem like an oversell, there is some truth to daylight saving time reducing crime rates. When we turn our clocks back in the fall, criminals use the extra hour of darkness to carry out more robberies, according to a 2015 study in *The Review of Economics and Statistics. *

The study found that when people turn their clocks back in the fall, robberies increase by 7 percent over the whole day — but go up 27 percent in the hours after sunset.

There’s less evidence, however, to suggest that greater evening daylight reduces the rate of homicides.

One study found that daylight saving time had “no significant effect on changes in homicide rates per 100,000 inhabitants” in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.

A 2012 working paper from Stanford found that during daylight saving time there was a decrease in evening murders. However, the paper noted the effect was not statistically significant in the researcher’s analysis.

Another study published in 2024 in the journal Lighting Research & Technology similarly found “mixed” evidence between lighting and crime, reporting no significant connection between daylight and homicide.

However, that study also found much stronger evidence linking additional light to an increase in robberies.

There have been previous pushes to make daylight saving time permanent. In March 2022, the Senate unanimously approved an earlier version of the legislature, but it stalled in the House over whether the country should make daylight saving time or standard time permanent.