The House of Representatives passed legislation largely along party lines Thursday morning that would codify President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Every House Democrat that voted opposed the legislation sponsored by Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Gulf of America Act. The bill is the fifth executive order House passed to codify one of President Donald Trump’s second term executive orders, in only 109 days.
Republican Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon, a moderate lawmaker representing a battleground House district who is mulling retirement, was the lone Republican lawmaker to vote against the bill. He referred to the legislation as “sophomoric” while speaking with reporters.
“The United States is bigger and better than this,” Bacon told Fox News Digital.
Greene’s bill would order federal agencies to permanently change the name of the body of water on documents and maps to the Gulf of America. She has characterized the legislation as “an important step in codifying President Donald Trump’s agenda into law.”
“It’s our gulf,” Greene said in a statement following the bill being favorably reported out of committee in April. “The rightful name is the Gulf of America and it’s what the entire world should refer to it as.”
Most House Democrats led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries slammed House GOP leadership for spending floor time on legislation they viewed as inconsequential and “a sick joke.”
“I urge a strong no against this silly, small-minded and sycophantic piece of legislation,” Jeffries said on the House floor prior to the vote. “Instead of focusing on things that would make a difference in the lives of the American people, we are here on the House floor more than 400 years after the fact, debating legislation to rename the Gulf of Mexico.”
Greene fired back at GOP lawmakers who grumbled at House GOP leadership for prioritizing her bill over legislation seeking to codify the president’s other executive orders.
“Some of my Republican colleagues don’t want to vote for my Gulf of America Act which is one of President Trump’s favorite executive orders,” Greene wrote on her personal X account Wednesday. “Boys are you ready to vote to criminalize sex changes on kids?? Because I have that bill on that EO too.”
None of the House-passed bills seeking to codify Trump’s executive orders have passed in the Senate thus far. Democrats have filibustered two of these bills: legislation to sanction the International Criminal Court and bar transgender athletes from girls and women’s sports.
“As the previous administration made it painfully clear, executive orders can be undone and overwritten,” Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday at the House GOP leadership press conference. “And that’s why we have to move it through the legislative process.”
“We’re going to codify dozens of President Trump’s budget related executive orders through the budget reconciliation process,” Johnson continued.
Greene’s bill now heads to the Senate where the legislation faces uncertain prospects due to the upper chamber’s 60-vote legislative filibuster threshold.
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