Bill renaming Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America passes US House, on way to GOP-led Senate

Yahoo

08-05-2025

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill that backs President Donald Trump renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, sponsored the Gulf of America Act, which was also backed by GOP leadership. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Nebraska, was the only Republican lawmaker to vote with Democrats against the bill on May 8.
It passed 211-206 and is now up for consideration in the GOP-majority Senate. There are 45 Democrats, 53 Republicans and two Independents in the chamber. It will require 60 votes to become law.
If passed, the law will require federal agencies to use Gulf of America when talking about the body of water for "any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of the United States."
Trump made the move to rename the gulf in an executive order signed on his first day in office. He also changed the name of Denali, a mountain in Alaska, back to Mount McKinley. (The president later designated Feb. 9 the "first ever" Gulf of America Day, saying there should be celebrations.)
It's not the first time someone has tried to rebrand the area. A Mississippi lawmaker had a failed attempt to rename it the Gulf of America more than a decade ago.
Trump's name changes will only apply to maps in the United States of America, and the Trump administration is working to enforce use of the gulf's updated name.
The White House has kept Associated Press reporters from events in an ongoing battle over the organization's refusal to use Trump's preferred name for the body of water off the southern coast of the U.S.
The United States and Google and Apple already officially updated maps to the Gulf of America.
Here's what we know about the name change and how it's been handled so far.
'We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring,' Trump said in a Jan. 7 news conference at his his Florida home at Mar-a-Lago. 'That covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name. And it's appropriate.'
Changes created under the "Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness" executive order signed Jan. 20 were to go into effect within 30 days, according to the text.
In 2012, Rep. Steve Holland, D-Plantersville, introduced a bill at the state level to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the 'Gulf of America.' Holland reportedly said he was poking fun at anti-immigration talking points. The bill was unsuccessful.
In the U.S., the U.S. Board on Geographic Names determines what places go on government maps. It uses local names and often uses one preferred by the most people locally.
The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names helps countries standardize names similarly at the global level.
Short answer, no.
Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo has said they will ignore it. She threatened legal action against Google over the move in February.
'If a country wants to change the designation of something in the sea, it would only apply up to 12 nautical miles. It cannot apply to the rest, in this case, the Gulf of Mexico. This is what we explained in detail to Google,' she said in a January news conference.
Every country doesn't have to agree to the same names. There are workarounds.
If two or more countries use different names for a body of water, Google Earth uses both and designates which country prefers each option. For example, South Korea's East Sea and Japan's Sea of Japan are the same area.
Contributing: Sudiksha Kochi
Bonnie Bolden is the Deep South Connect reporter for Mississippi with Gannett/USA Today. Email her at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: House passes bill to back Trump, rename Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America