Do farmers really want Daylight Saving Time?

It comes in 2026 just after a House-passed bill that would make daylight saving time permanent. However, the Senate is unlikely to act, despite pressure from President Donald Trump and Americans who don’t like having to change their clocks twice a year.

Highlighting the divide, farmers in Minnesota are also divided on the possible changes. Minnesota Farmers Union President Gary Wertish told The WCCO Morning News with Vineeta Sawkar that local agricultural workers remain split on the benefits of daylight saving time, with most simply favoring a single, year-round standard time.

"A lot of it goes back to saving power. Whether that actually saves power or not, I don't have an answer for that," Wertish says. "But that I think most farmers just like to not have to worry about the change."

Wertish also said the clock changes comes mainly as an old tradition, but the laws around it are fairly new.

"Before the 1900s, it started in in Canada and then both during the world wars, World War I and World War II, it was on for a few years during the war," he explained. "And then in 1966 there was an act passed that conformity within the U.S. on the dates, and then actually in 2005, it got signed into law under George Bush."

Wertish says it's possible local agricultural groups will push lawmakers for permanent time-change reform, or policy relief in the upcoming state legislative session.

Daylight saving time ends early Sunday, requiring much of the U.S. to move clocks back one hour.

Several senators are holding up legislation that would eliminate that longtime U.S. tradition. Supporters argue that ending the time change would provide more daylight during the times Americans are most active. Opponents say commuters in some states wouldn’t see the sun until after 9:00 a.m.

“No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.

Cotton, a member of GOP leadership, is the most vocal opponent of the change, notably drawing Trump’s ire earlier this month when the Republican president posted his personal cellphone number on social media and ordered him to “GET IT DONE!” But Cotton is not the only senator blocking the legislation, which would make daylight saving time the permanent national standard.

Several other Republicans, particularly those from some Northern states that would see much later sunrises, say they also oppose it.

“You’d be sending kids to school in the dark,” said South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds

That is certainly true in Minnesota. Without a "fall back" daylight saving time change, the latest winter sunrise in the Twin Cities would shift to 8:51 a.m. (instead of the usual 7:51 a.m.), and in western areas like Moorhead, it would reach 9:12 a.m. (instead of 8:12 a.m.).

The sun would not rise before 8:00 a.m. for over 100 consecutive days, between November and the end of February. Children going to school would face dark morning bus stops well past 8:30 a.m. for much of the winter.

Previous laws have been repealed

In the winter of 1973, amid an energy crisis, Congress passed a law instituting permanent daylight saving time for what was supposed to be a trial period. But it was repealed by that October as public support had sharply dropped, partly because of concern for children who were walking to school in the dark.

Now more than 50 years later, fewer Americans recall that experiment. Like Trump, many want to ditch the twice-yearly time change and add more daylight hours later in the day.

An AP-NORC poll last year found that only 12% of American adults were in favor of the current system, while almost half opposed it. Proponents of a single time include the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott signed legislation when he was governor in 2018 that would allow the state to remain on daylight saving time year round, pending federal approval. Now in the Senate, the Republican has led efforts to make that happen.

“I hear from Americans constantly that they are sick and tired of changing their clocks twice a year — it’s an unnecessary, decades-old practice that’s more of an annoyance to families than benefit to them,” Scott said.

Several Democrats are on board, as well.

“The head-spinning ritual of falling back and springing forward has a very real impact on our economy, our health, and our happiness,” said Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, when Scott introduced his own bill last year. “Let’s say goodbye to 4pm winter sunsets.”