NEW YORK, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who were tapped by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, said they're hunting for ways to make American government more efficient, and one possible target is the semiannual changing of the clock that so many Americans dislike, reported The Washington Post on Tuesday.
"Looks like the people want to abolish the annoying time changes!" Musk wrote last week on his social platform, X, linking to another user's online poll that found most respondents wanted to end daylight saving time. "It's inefficient & easy to change," Ramaswamy wrote in a reply to Musk.
The practice of shifting clocks forward one hour in March and back one hour in November is intended to maximize Americans' exposure to sunlight during working hours but has long been derided for causing groggy mornings, missed appointments and even some public health problems, the report said.
It was not immediately clear whether the two men were seriously floating a new policy priority, and it was also unclear how a Trump White House would seek to end clock changes, given that Congress -- not the executive branch -- has controlled the nation's time shifts, and lawmakers' recent legislation has stalled, according to the report.
"The simmering fight over how Americans set their clocks, and when they must do it, has drawn unusual coalitions in Washington based more on geography than on politics," noted the report. "Republicans and Democrats, mostly from the coasts, have called for year-round daylight saving time, saying that permanently advancing the clocks one hour and never 'falling back' would allow more people to enjoy sunshine and avoid the frustrations involved with resetting clocks."
