Nebraska’s U.S. Rep. Don Bacon was the only Republican to vote against a measure that would codify President Donald Trump’s executive order to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, would require “any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, or other record” to be changed from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
It passed the Republican-controlled House on May 8 by a 211-206 vote, with Bacon and all Democrats opposing it, USA TODAY reported. Sixteen lawmakers didn’t vote – eight Republicans and eight Democrats.
Trump, shortly after he took office, signed an executive order to change the name, saying the body of water “has long been an integral asset to our once burgeoning nation and has remained an indelible part of America.”
The legislation faces a tougher challenge in the Senate, where seven Democrats would need to join Republicans for it to clear the 60-vote threshold and advance to a final vote.
Bacon says the US has to deal with ‘more important issues’
Bacon, who was first elected to the House in 2016, said the U.S. has “more important issues to worry about.”
“The administration is making great strides securing our border and cutting waste in government,” Bacon told States Newsroom. “But we need to focus on the reconciliation bill and how to strengthen Medicaid for every American who needs it. Renaming bodies of water is not a priority and sends a bad message to the rest of the world.”
However, other Republicans have expressed support for the bill.
Greene said in a post on X ahead of the vote that it was “time to codify President Trump’s executive order into law.”
She wrote, “It’s OUR gulf, let’s make the name permanent!”
House Rules Committee Chairwoman Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina, said during a hearing that the bill “recognizes the strategic influence America has over this geography, not to mention the existing economic, cultural, and commercial might that we passively exert on the gulf.”
But Democrats criticized the legislation, including Florida’s U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost.
“Prices are going up. People’s 401(k)s are being decimated, and they want to rename the Gulf of Mexico, which isn’t even going to work,” Frost said. “The rest of the world is going to call it the Gulf of Mexico.”
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Who was the only Republican opposed to the Gulf of America bill?
Reporting by Chris Mueller, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
