As the clocks are set to fall back over the weekend, Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey is facing renewed heat for comments he made in 2022 that “more daylight hours” would mean “more smiles.”

U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton has blocked the Senate from approving a bipartisan bill, backed by President Trump, that would make daylight saving time permanent, and the Arkansas Republican says he believes Markey’s stance is wrong.

“Of course, the advocates for permanent Daylight Savings Time try to put, well, a sunny face on this bill,” Cotton said during a floor speech opposing the measure on Tuesday. “Back in 2022, the senator from Massachusetts argued that it would mean ‘more daylight hours’ and ‘more smiles.’”

“For my friends from Massachusetts and Rhode Island, have you ever spent a winter in Boston or Providence? The sun disappears there barely after 4:00 p.m.,” Cotton continued. “Little wonder they’ve joined the effort. These senators represent states that overwhelmingly benefit from year-round Daylight Savings Time because of their latitude and longitude.”

Cotton didn’t call Markey out by name directly. His comments, though, align with a statement the Massachusetts senator made in 2022 following the Senate’s unanimous approval of an end to changing clocks twice a year. The bill stalled shortly after.

“No more switching clocks,”  Markey said in the statement, “more daylight hours to spend outside after school and after work, and more smiles — that is what we get with permanent Daylight Saving Time. U.S. Senate passage of the Sunshine Protection Act means brighter days ahead for Americans, all year round.”

Markey, who has served in Congress since 1976, led a push in the mid-2000s that extended the duration of daylight saving time in the spring by changing its start date from the first Sunday in April to the second Sunday in March, and in the fall by changing its end date from the last Sunday in October to the first Sunday in November.

Forty years ago, in 1985, Markey partnered with a California Republican representative to extend DST by three weeks.

Around the country, the clocks will go back one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday to mark the return to standard time and more daylight in the mornings.

Cotton said he understands and respects proponents of permanent daylight saving time, but at the same time, he believes “these highly concentrated benefits for a few industries in a few regions are offset by widely distributed costs across many more industries throughout the entire country.”

“For many Arkansans, permanent daylight savings time would mean the sun wouldn’t rise until after 8:00 or even 8:30 a.m. during the dead of winter,” Cotton said. “The darkness of permanent savings time would be especially harmful for school children and working Americans.”

Only 12% of U.S. adults favor the current system of daylight saving time, which has people in most states changing the clocks twice a year, according to a new AP-NORC poll, while 47% are opposed and 40% are neutral.

President Donald Trump supports permanent daylight saving time.

“Very popular,” Trump said in a Truth Social post this past spring, “and, most importantly, no more changing of the clocks, a big inconvenience and, for our government, A VERY COSTLY EVENT!!!”

The Associated Press contributed to this report