The House of Representatives passed legislation to codify President Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

The bill passed in a 211-206 vote, with zero support from Democrats.

“The Gulf of America Act has PASSED the House! OUR military defends its waters, OUR business owners support its economy, & the AMERICAN PEOPLE fund its protection,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said.

“This is one of President Trump’s MANY executive orders that needs to be codified into law. I now urge my colleagues in the Senate to pass this bill and send it straight to President Trump’s desk!” she added.

Per USA TODAY:

The bill, introduced by conservative firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., requires that “any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, or other record” to the Gulf of Mexico shall be changed to the Gulf of America, according to its text. It notes that the head of each federal agency has 180 days to update their documents and maps, and that the Secretary of Interior will oversee the renaming.

ADVERTISEMENT

Greene’s bill passed the House along mostly party lines by a 211-206 vote, with one Republican, Rep. Don Bacon, and all Democrats opposing it.

In January, Trump signed an executive order directing the name change, noting that the body of water “has long been an integral asset to our once burgeoning Nation and has remained an indelible part of America.” The gulf is surrounded by Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, as well as some parts of Mexico and Cuba.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) was the lone Republican to vote against the bill, CNN noted.

CNN reports:

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.

ADVERTISEMENT
 

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.