Boebert suggests GOP could rename DC ‘District of America'
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) urged lawmakers to stop making fun of President Trump's decision to rename the Gulf of America, suggesting the nation's capital could undergo the same change.
'I would caution my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to refrain from making jokes about the Gulf of America because next up may be the District of America that we are working on,' Boebert said during a Tuesday hearing for the House Natural Resources Committee.
Boebert made these remarks at a legislative hearing for the Gulf of America Act to support Trump's executive order through technical amendments.
The Hill has reached out to Boebert's office.
In the first days of his second term, Trump changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, along with reversing the name of Alaska's Denali back to Mount McKinley.
Trump has questioned D.C. Mayor Bowser's (D) ability to lead the city, citing an uptick in crime and homelessness as a reason for federal leadership over the municipality.
The president and Bowser met in December, but soon after their closed-door talk, the three-term mayor faced public scrutiny from Republican leaders.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) introduced the Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident (BOWSER) Act, an acronym for Bowser, in early February in an effort to repeal the Home Rule Act which permits, D.C.'s autonomous style of government.
Trump addressed the District on March 14 in remarks at the Justice Department (DOJ).
'We're cleaning up our city. We're cleaning up this great capital, and we're not going to have crime and we're not going to stand for crime, and we're going to take the graffiti down and we're already taken to tents down there,' Trump said in his speech on 'law and order.'
'We're working with the administration, and if the administration can't do the job … we're gonna have to take it back and run it through the federal government,' the president said of the District's leadership.
'But we hope the administration is going to be able — so far, they've been doing very well. The mayor has been doing a good job.'
A week prior to those comments, Trump ordered Bowser to remove the Black Lives Matter plaza across from the White House which the BOWSER Act has suggested be renamed to Liberty Plaza.
While lettering has been removed, a formal decision to rename the street awaits a vote from Congress.
Bowser has remained vocal about attacks from Congress seeking to infringe on the city's autonomy. She recently pointed out an issue in the continuing resolution which sought to revert D.C. to its 2024 budget with a $1.1 billion deficit as authored by House GOP members.
'We are not a federal agency,' Bowser said. 'We are a city, county, state all at once, and we provide direct services to the people of the District of Columbia, visitors to the District of Columbia, businesses in the District of Columbia, diplomats and visiting heads of state and everyone who works here in the Congress.'
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) introduced a bill to fix the issue, which passed successfully on March 14.
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