Tuberville calls on Musk, Ramaswamy to make daylight saving time permanent

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) encouraged the new "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) to create a year-round standard time in a Wednesday post on the social platform X.

His goal is to have the department, led by X owner Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, replace daylight saving time.

“The outdated practice of changing our clocks twice a year is ridiculous and needs to end,” Tuberville wrote online, quoting a post that announced DOGE was considering the change.

“@elonmusk, @VivekGRamaswamy let’s LOCK THE CLOCK and make DST permanent,” he added. 

Last week, Musk responded to Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R), who asked his followers if they’d be in favor of a change. The tech giant simply said, “Yes.”

For decades, states have adjusted their clocks twice a year — in November and March, as decided in 2007 — to help Americans gain more access to sunlight throughout shifting seasons. However, some people feel the adjustment is too high a burden for ever-changing schedules.

Forty-three percent of the country wants to stay on standard time year-round, 32 percent prefer to see the clocks remain on daylight saving time and 25 percent like the existing state of affairs in most of the country, according to a survey from The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, a nonpartisan research organization. 

Hawaii and parts of Arizona have adopted a permanent year-round, standard time clock according to the Council of State Governments. U.S. territories, including American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, have observed the same stipulation.

President-elect Trump has previously been in favor of making daylight saving time permanent, and his nominee for secretary of State, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), sponsored a bill in support of the change last year.

It’s unclear whether Musk and Ramaswamy are committed to reversing that norm.