The House has passed a Republican-led bill that would rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, moving a step closer to codifying President Donald Trump’s push to rename the body of water.
The bill, which lawmakers approved in a 211-206 vote, now moves to the Republican-led Senate for consideration. One Republican, Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, voted with Democrats Thursday against the measure.
Sponsored by Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and backed by House GOP leadership, the bill would require federal agencies to update all maps and documents with the name Gulf of America.
The effort has drawn criticism from some Republican lawmakers, highlighting tensions within the party and raising questions ahead of the House vote about whether the measure would have enough support to pass given the chamber’s slim Republican majority.
Bacon told CNN earlier this week that he would not vote for the bill, arguing that “it just seems juvenile.”
“We’re the United States of America. We’re not Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany or Napoleon France,” he said, adding, “We’re better than this. It just sounds like a sophomore thing to do.”
House Democrats, meanwhile, have harshly criticized Republicans’ decision to hold a vote on the bill, calling it a waste of time and taxpayer dollars.
Democratic Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania said the legislation “may be the dumbest bill brought to the floor” in the time she’s served in Congress.
“With all the important work this Congress should be tackling, the speaker and House Republicans have chosen to indulge the president in a whim that the American public does not support,” she said on the House floor Tuesday.
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order directing the Gulf of Mexico be renamed Gulf of America. Government agencies and the US Coast Guard have already started using Gulf of America, while other countries have not recognized the name change.
“The American people are footing the bill to protect and secure the maritime waterways for commerce to be conducted. Our U.S. armed forces protect the area from any military threats from foreign countries,” Taylor Greene said in a statement when she introduced the bill back in January.
“It’s our gulf. The rightful name is the Gulf of America and it’s what the entire world should refer to it as,” she said.
The White House seized on the issue in recent weeks in a dispute with The Associated Press that has led to court involvement.
Trump, as CNN has reported, is also making plans for the US to begin referring to the Persian Gulf as the Gulf of Arabia or the Arabian Gulf.
The expected announcement is tied to his trip to the Middle East next week, where he’ll visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, according to two administration officials familiar with the discussions. The officials added that conversations regarding the change are ongoing, and it is still unclear when the president will make the announcement.
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