House passes bill to make 'Gulf of America' name change permanent
The future isn't sure in the Senate, where Republicans will need Democrat votes.
The Republican-led House voted Thursday to codify President Donald Trump's Gulf of America executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
It passed with a 211 to 206 vote with Rep. Don Bacon as the only Republican to vote against the measure.
The legislation, which was introduced by Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, codifies an executive order from President Donald Trump to rename the body of water.
Its fate in the Senate is more of a challenge, given that it will need bipartisan cooperation to overcome a filibuster. Leader John Thune has not indicated whether he'll put the measure on the floor for a vote.
"Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper or other record of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico shall be deemed to be a reference to the 'Gulf of America,'" the bill text states.
The measure also instructs each federal agency to update each document and map in accordance with the name change, which Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum will oversee.
One of Trump's first executive orders when he started his second term was to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
"Codifying the rightful renaming of the Gulf of America isn't just a priority for me and President Trump, it's a priority for the American people. American taxpayers fund its protection, our military defends its waters, and American businesses fuel its economy," Greene argued in a post on X.
Beyond the committee chairs managing the floor debate, Greene -- flanked by a map labeling the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America -- was the only Republican to speak in support of the legislation.
Meanwhile, several Democrats including Leader Hakeem Jeffries "strongly" urged lawmakers to vote against "this small-minded, silly and sycophantic bill" during floor debate.
"Republicans have decided to spend this entire legislative day doing is to debate a bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico. Now, in some ways the American people can be thankful," Jeffries added.
Speaker Mike Johnson endorsed the bill.
"We've been working around the clock to codify so much of what President Trump has been doing … to make sure that we put these into statutory law so that it can't be reversed and erased by an upcoming administration," Johnson said at a news conference on Tuesday.
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