The House of Representatives voted 211-206 to codify President Donald Trump’s name change for the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Only one Republican, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), voted against the bill, joining Democrats.
The bill is unlikely to advance past the 60-vote filibuster in the Senate.
Prior to the vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) called for a “strong no against this silly, small-minded and sycophantic piece of legislation.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the bill’s sponsor, said, “The American people deserve pride in their country, and they deserve pride in the waters that we own, that we protect, with our military and our Coast Guard, and all of the businesses that prosper along these waters.”
Upon announcing the bill in January, Greene said, “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.”
“It’s our gulf,” she declared. “The rightful name is the Gulf of America and it’s what the entire world should refer to it as.”
“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 states.
President Trump’s executive order renaming the gulf is designed to honor “American greatness.”
“The Gulf will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping America’s future and the global economy, and in recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people, I am directing that it officially be renamed the Gulf of America,” Trump’s order read.
