A renewed push by President Donald Trump and House Republicans to make daylight saving time permanent has advanced in Congress, drawing concern from Orthodox Jewish leaders who warn that the change would push sunrise past 8 and even 9 a.m. in major cities for weeks at a time, throwing morning davening into crisis for hundreds of thousands of frum Jews.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 48 to 1 last Thursday to advance the Sunshine Protection Act, folded into a broader transportation bill, the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act. The legislation, introduced by Senator Rick Scott and Representative Vern Buchanan, both Florida Republicans, would lock the country into daylight saving time year-round, ending the twice-yearly clock changes. States would retain the option to opt out and remain on standard time.
Trump applauded the committee vote on Truth Social and pledged to “work very hard” to pass the bill. “It’s time that people can stop worrying about the ‘Clock,’ not to mention all of the work and money that is spent on this ridiculous, twice yearly production,” he wrote. “We are going with the far more popular alternative, Saving Daylight, which gives you a longer, brighter Day — And who can be against that — This is an easy one!”
The Senate companion bill has 18 bipartisan cosponsors, and the House version has 32.
The proposal has alarmed Orthodox advocacy groups, which warn that permanent DST would clash with the fundamental halachic requirement that shacharis be davened only after haneitz hachamah. Under permanent daylight saving time, sunrise in New York would fall after 8 a.m. for nearly two months during the winter, and would arrive after 9 a.m. in cities like Detroit for several weeks. That would leave many working men unable to daven with a minyan and arrive at the office by 9 a.m., a conflict that would last for months rather than the narrow window of inconvenience under the current system.
Agudath Israel of America, which led the successful campaign against the last permanent-DST push in 2022, has warned that the change would cause many shuls to struggle to assemble a morning minyan and would force working Yidden to choose between davening b’tzibbur and their parnassah. The organization circulated a legislative memorandum on Capitol Hill at the time, including a survey of sunrise times in cities across the country and an analysis of zmanim by Rabbi Dovid Heber of Baltimore.
The halachic stakes were spelled out decades ago by Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l, who in a 1971 teshuva sent to then-Agudath Israel president Rabbi Moshe Sherer described the extra winter hour of permanent DST as a crisis that would jeopardize the morning tefillos of observant Jews for months each year. The 1970s experiment with permanent DST was repealed by Congress in part because of widespread reports of children being struck by cars while walking to school in the dark, a concern that would immediately return if DST is enacted.
Trump’s position on the issue has shifted. In December 2024, he posted on Truth Social that the Republican Party should “eliminate Daylight Saving Time,” a stance that, while still disruptive, would have been less damaging to morning tefillah. He reversed course earlier this year, now backing permanent DST. The earlier effort to enact permanent DST passed the Senate unanimously in March 2022 but stalled in the House after lawmakers said they could not reach consensus, in part because of Orthodox community advocacy.
Sleep researchers and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine have separately argued that permanent standard time, not permanent DST, would be the healthier option, citing circadian rhythm disruption. The Health and Human Services Department under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been associated with that view, which has gained traction among supporters of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
It remains uncertain whether the bill will clear the full House and Senate and reach Trump’s desk. Orthodox groups are expected to mobilize their advocacy networks once again as the legislation moves to the House floor.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
15 Responses
Do they not care about “widespread reports of children being struck by cars while walking to school in the dark,”? A similar experiment in the UK decades ago also failed because of that.
Agudath Israel of America has a tiny lobbying group. If this gets defeated, it won’t be due to them but rather the tens of other groups that oppose this. Let’s get real.
Wrecking Shachris minyanim for those who daven tefilla b’tzibor versus a nation of 300 million. Why should millions who are unaffected by zmanai tefilla be trumped by a few hundred thousand Yidden? Isn’t a bit presumptuous to legislate based on a meut that’s butul b’shishim?
We can daven schachris by limunch!
I don’t understand how anyone, any single person , can like this.
Arizona:
You are getting excited at 300 million-big number right-guess what-I have news for you—
At the present moment let us look at the group of people living in USA from the age of 12 till 65 years or 70 years old, the majority of this age group definitely looks at inappropriate sites on the internet and a nice percentage I am sure also are doing sins that are forbidden even for a Ben Noach-The non-Jewish have seven Mitzvos that they must keep-The majority of the people in USA are not keeping all those seven.
We are talking about a real
חיוב מיתה
A lot of people today are walking “dead people”. Your facts are wrong. We don’t have here 300 million walking “‘live people”.
If the bill passes and the President signs it into law it’ll be figured out. I hope the Poskim are already discussing it now and not waiting until people freak out.
The reason we daven with tiburon is to remember to take into account needs of others instead of davening for your own, like travelers davening for no rain ignoring farmers who need rain – to grow wheat that the travelers will be selling.
Just saying.
Number one, arizona is correct. We’ve gotten way too comfortable here if we think it’s appropriate to publically fight national initiatives about daylight savings time due to what time zman krias shma and tefilla is.
Number two, isn’t the issue of people getting home by shkiah on Friday worth considering here? Permanent daylight savings means shkiah is an hour later throughout the winter, which makes a significant difference in many cities. Why do we assume everyone can easily leave work on Friday afternoons but men can’t work 10 – 6 shifts (etc) most days, and daven before that?
one can daven after the point of mi’she’yakir. If we use zemanim that were promoted by gedolai olam in EY, that is a depression angle of >= 11.5 degrees or almost 1 hour before hanetz hachamah not good, but not so, so bad
Avraham, that’s one of the worst YWN comment takes I’ve seen. Why don’t you make a radio ad campaign for it? “we don’t care about the rest of the country because many violate the 7 mitzvos (BY LOOKING AT INAPPROPRIATE WEBSITES) and are thus chayav misa!”
Charitably I’d say this is an example of chassid shoteh but more likely it’s just shoteh.
Is the whole country going to yield because of shachris?
Why aren’t his “frum” daughter and son-in-law complaining to him???
If people currently typically daven and then commute an hour to work, then couldn’t they reverse the order and thus still be able to daven biTzibbur before work? Don’t multiple big cities already have shacharis minyanim in their downtown areas? I don’t see how this knocks out the possibility of tefillah biTzibbur (other than perhaps in places at the edge of a time zone, like Detroit).
Also, the Shabbos point by @BaisIsThePlace is a very good one. Adding an extra hour to winter Fridays could be very helpful for both working and non-working people, possibly even resulting in a reduction in chilul Shabbos. Another benefit for many would be the later sof zemanai krias shema and tefillah.
Maybe they could also shift the workday to 10-6 instead of 9-5, which would totally solve the morning issue including still enabling people to daven and then commute.
avraham: Ask your doctor for sedatives. Nobody here knows what you’re talking about. This entire nation cannot bend to the wishes of mispalalim b’tzibor.