House votes to codify Trump's Gulf of America executive order

( NBC )

The Republican-led House on Thursday passed a bill that seeks to codify President Donald Trump’s executive order that renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

Though all Democrats and one Republican — Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska — opposed the bill, Republicans narrowly passed the measure, 211-206, sending it to the Senate for a vote.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia introduced the GOP bill after Trump signed an executive order in January that ordered Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to “take all appropriate actions to rename the Gulf” and update a database of the “official names for geographic features in the 50 states.”

On Thursday, during debate on the House floor ahead of the vote, Greene promoted her bill and accused Democrats of "fighting to keep the Gulf of America named the Gulf of Mexico because the cartels are their business partners."

"They fight for the cartels so much," the Georgia congresswoman added.

Democrats, meanwhile, accused Republicans of ignoring more important matters while taking the time to evaluate this bill.

"What might members of Congress under this temporary Republican majority be debating on the floor today?" House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., asked during debate ahead of the vote. "Would it be legislation about the economy? Something about healthcare, anything about social security? Perhaps something on public safety, maybe national security matters? Anything to bring to life the American dream for hardworking American taxpayers?"

No," Jeffries continued, "What Republicans have decided to spend this entire legislative day doing is to debate a bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico.”

While Trump does not need congressional approval to ensure the name change is reflected across the federal government, the bill would prevent a future president from easily reversing the move through executive action.

“As the previous administration made it painfully clear, executive orders can be undone and overwritten, and that’s why we have to move it through the legislative process — and we are,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Tuesday. “We’re going to pass Marjorie Taylor Greene’s bill to permanently rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.”

Bacon said Tuesday that he plans to vote "no," calling the legislative effort "juvenile."

“We’re the United States of America. We’re not Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany or Napoleon’s France. I just — we’re better than this. It just sounds like a sophomore thing to do," Bacon told CNN.

In addition to codifying the name change, the Gulf of America Act would direct the chairman of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to ensure that “any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico” is deemed a reference to the Gulf of America.

Should it become law, federal agency heads would have 180 days to ensure agency-specific records are updated to reflect the name change, as well.

The measure's future in the Senate is uncertain. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., was non-committal this week when asked whether the Senate would take up the bill.

"Does it take Congress to do that? I suppose--I don’t know. I haven’t, haven’t thought that far ahead and got a lot of other stuff we’ve got directly in front of us at the moment,” Thune said.

The measure is also unlikely to get enough Democratic support in the Senate to overcome procedural hurdles, even if Thune brings it to a vote.

Some of Trump's other efforts to rename landmarks have drawn Republican opposition, as well. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska fiercely criticized Trump’s decision to revert the name of Mount Denali in her home state to Mount McKinley in the same executive order as the Gulf of America renaming.

Murkowski introduced legislation in February that would officially require the mountain to be recognized "by its true name," Denali.

Democrats have roundly criticized Greene's bill, with House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California framing the vote as a waste of time and resources.

"House Republicans should use this time, this free week that they have, to vote on policy that matters for everyday Americans," Aguilar said at a news conference Tuesday. "But instead, we’re talking about Marjorie Taylor Greene’s bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico — a slap in the face to hard-working Americans who want their leaders to bring down the cost of living."

Trump touted his effort to rename the Gulf at a rally in Michigan commemorating the first 100 days of his second term, telling supporters that he has become "very unpopular in Mexico" because of the name change.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has repeatedly dismissed Trump's order, insisting that her government will continue to refer to the Gulf by its historic name.

The Associated Press' refusal to refer to the Gulf solely as the Gulf of America made it a top target of the White House, which for months denied it access to certain events and barred its reporters from traveling with Trump, prompting a legal challenge.

A federal judge ordered the White House in April to stop sidelining the AP, calling it "contrary to the First Amendment" and directing the administration to "put the AP on an equal playing field as similarly situated outlets, despite the AP's use of disfavored terminology."

Trump indicated Wednesday that another name change could be on the horizon.

He said that he was considering a plan to begin calling the Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf and that he will make the decision ahead of a trip next week to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

"They’re going to ask me about that when I that when I get there, and I’ll have to make a decision," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I guess a lot of people get ideas from us."

Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, said that if Trump were to officially rename the Persian Gulf, he would erase "the identity of an entire region."

“The Persian Gulf is not just a name on a map — it’s a reflection of a shared and ancient history that cannot and should not be erased to appease narrow political interests or provoke tensions," Abdi said in a statement.