Agudath Israel of America is urging New Jersey residents to contact U.S. Senators Andy Kim and Cory Booker as the U.S. Senate considers the Sunshine Protection Act, legislation that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent nationwide.
The legislation, known as the Sunshine Protection Act, passed the House of Representatives by a 308-117 vote, and now awaits action in the Senate. If passed and signed by President Trump – who is pushing strongly for passage – it would put the country on the time currently observed from March to November unless a state exempted itself before the act took effect.
The call to action comes after a delegation of Agudath Israel advocates, including Shlomo Schorr, Director of Legislative Affairs for Agudath Israel’s New Jersey Office, traveled to Washington, D.C., where they met with more than 20 Senate offices to discuss the proposal.
According to Agudath Israel, the meetings were encouraging, with many Senate offices acknowledging the concerns raised and indicating that senators are continuing to study the issue before deciding whether to support the legislation.
Schorr said the discussions were particularly significant in New Jersey.
“When we met with Senator Andy Kim’s office, we were told that although Senator Kim had previously sponsored the Sunshine Protection Act, he is now undecided and is carefully reviewing its potential impacts,” Schorr said. “That means New Jersey residents have a real opportunity to make their voices heard before a final decision is made.”
Agudath Israel’s Action Alert outlines two primary concerns with making Daylight Saving Time permanent.
The organization argues that keeping clocks on Daylight Saving Time year-round would push winter sunrises until after 8 a.m. in New Jersey, forcing many children to travel to school in darkness for much of the winter and increasing potential safety risks. The group also points to the nation’s brief experiment with permanent Daylight Saving Time in the early 1970s, which Congress repealed after widespread public opposition and concerns about children traveling to school before sunrise.
The organization also says the proposal would create significant challenges for the Orthodox Jewish community by delaying the earliest permissible time for Shacharis during the winter months. According to Agudath Israel, later sunrises would make it difficult for many working individuals to attend a morning minyan or even put on tefillin before leaving for work, while also creating scheduling difficulties for synagogues and yeshivos.
Schorr also noted that these concerns have long been recognized within the Orthodox community.
“In 1971, Harav Hagaon Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt’l, described permanent Daylight Saving Time as a ‘gezeirah mamash al hatefillah’ and urged that it be opposed through every available means of advocacy,” Schorr said. “Those concerns remain just as relevant today.”
The Action Alert asks New Jersey residents to contact both of the state’s senators and urge them to carefully consider the impact of permanent Daylight Saving Time on children’s safety, religious practice, and daily life before supporting the legislation.
The renewed advocacy effort comes as President Donald Trump publicly called on Senate Republicans Tuesday evening to move the legislation forward.
“This is an issue that Republicans, Democrats, and Independents can unite behind,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “I am asking Republican Senators to release their holds, and allow the hotline to clear on the Republican side.”
The Sunshine Protection Act has received bipartisan support in previous sessions of Congress but has repeatedly stalled in the Senate. While supporters argue that permanent Daylight Saving Time would eliminate the need to change clocks twice a year, opponents have raised concerns about darker winter mornings, school safety, and the impact on sleep, health, and religious observance.
Senator Booker has recently said he would vote against the Sunshine Protection Act.
He’s not voting against the act, he’s voting against Trump. If trump wasn’t for it, he would vote for it.
Maybe it’s because of Agudath Israel.
He’s an anti Semite and would never choose Aguda over the democrat party. He has voted against aguda and jews majority of his senate career.
Senator Booker is widely known for his deep appreciation and connection to Judaism.
Really? Why did he under Biden vote against sending funds to defend our bretheren in eretz yisroel? Why has he continued to defend the abhorent anti semites in his party? try listening to him all the time, not just when he comes to lakewood, to collect your free vote!
You are incorrect, shmendrik. When Biden was president Senator Booker consistently voted against bills that would have cut off military aid to Israel. The fist time he voted to block certain arm sales to Israel was in April, this year. And anyway, someone not supporting the funding of the Israeli military does not make them an anti semite. Many Americans are against the military aid given to Israel as there have been tens of thousands of civilians killed in Gaza since October 2023. And which specific anti semites in his party are you saying he defended?
Why not just start work an hour later and end work an hour later? Stop changing the clock!
Not everyone can do as you’re suggesting? If anything, make Eastern Standard Time permanent.
i dont understand why people are downvoting ur post
Because you and he have no idea what the real world is about.
Maybe your boss has no problem with you starting work at 10 oclock. Most industries can’t do that. Your idea doesn’t resolve all the other negatives of this idea.
How do you contact?
Link to action alert is at the bottom of the story
What is so terrible? I would actually appreciate it. School can start later. No more rushed erev shabbos, changing back and forth makes every one crazy. DST all year!!
Firstly, all gedolim have said no to this. Secondly, there’s more to life then you not wanting to have to get your children up and out in the morning. Plus, do you really believe it’s good for childen to have only 1.5 hours yeshiva on a friday in the winter, because the early shabasim will still be early.
Gedolim??? Can we think for a second. Rav Moshe wrote that over 40 years ago, when the majority of frum yiden worked in Manhattan in secular companies. So making netzs too late would mean many frume yiden are davening before nets. Everything changed, the majority of frum yiden work in frum companies, and now it may actually be pretty good it will give men a chance to learn before they go to work since they can’t daven until 8 AM.
you obviously no nothing about anything
Majority of frum still work in Manhattan. In industries that require them to start at 9am. There are thousands of such Frum who learn more daily then you do, and still work a 9-5 job. I know of Lakewood people who have to leave their homes early, daven in Brooklyn enroute to manhattan. Come out o0f your little bubble and into the real world.
The clock needs to stop being changed. Enough is enough.
One direction or another, doesn’t matter to most of us but it MUST stop. What the Aguda should start pushing is changing the time zones across America which if they push that it will significantly change the whole story. Why is Detroit in the same time zone? Do some research. There are people who have figured out the time zone problems to perfection and if we can adopt their ideas, the minyanim issue will not be an issue!
Ma’am, you’re very wrong about davening. Working men have a very difficult time and rely on many kulos. No need to force us to rely on kulos more then we already do. Most of us don’t like it.
How old are you shmenrik?
Old enough. With lots of knowledge in real world business. A I have been working for many decades. Dealing with the working world, outside of the lakewood bubble, of it doesn’t affect me, who cares about the rest of the world.
Above or under 50?
Above. Do you remember the 70’s in NYC and all other big cities? I guess not. The world doesn’t revovlve around lakewood and those who live there.
If anything I think we should change the clock more times a year, not less. The way we have it now sunset is between 4:30 and 8:30. It’s disorganized
It should always be between 6 and 7.
Or just restore clock adjustments for the last Sunday in October & the last Sunday in April, the way it used to be. It’s more balanced this wayay
That wouldn’t happen anyway.
I hear but Hocking about it might at least help that they don’t stop changing it twice a year.
It changes twice a year for good reason. As all gedolim paaskened, this is a bad thing for Klal Yisroel. Hock about something that actually benefits the world and jews.
Excuse me, as you perhaps accidentally wrote above, the world does not completely revolve around you.
As R’ Moshe Feinstein himself used to tell people, every [intelligent educated] person is entitled to their opinion. That’s what these comment sections are for. It seems that a few money hungry people that don’t want to miss a few minutes of the work day are ruining it for everyone.
Oops I made a mistake. According to me that sunset should not fluctuate so much, we should not be changing the clock the way we do. If anything we should change it the other way to have daylight savings in the winter and maybe not the summer.
I think it’s more important for sunset not to fluctuate than sunrise. Because everyone I know is still up way past sunset. And almost no one is up at sunrise. So it’s less disorganized when sun up/down fluctuates in your sleep than if it’s throughout your day.
I think daylight is a good thing especially in the winter when without daylight it’s dangerously cold.
Regarding the religious aspect, I think it’s currently a bigger problem in the summer than the winter, since many people, mainly younger and older people, want to go to bed and it’s not really time for maariv yet.
And many people have a very hard time all year with getting up and ready and making zman krias shema and tefillah in the morning. Especially in the winter when it’s cold and your cozy in bed. So it would be helpful for them if the zman is later in the winter.
So if was up to me lol, I think we should have daylight savings in the winter and if anything change the clock in the opposite direction than currently. And maybe more than just twice a
year.