The U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 276, the “Gulf of America Act of 2025,” a bill that would officially rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” The legislation directs all federal agencies to update their documents and maps to reflect the new name within 180 days of enactment, should the bill pass the Senate.

The term “Gulf of Mexico” derives from the Spanish “Golfo de México,” with “Mexico” itself tracing back to the Mexica (Aztec) civilization. The Mexica, whose empire centered on present-day Mexico City, gave their name to the broader region after Spanish conquest. Although the country of Mexico would not be established for nearly 300 more years, the name’s roots are in the Aztec capital and its people.

By the mid-16th century, the name “Gulf of Mexico” had become standardized in European maps and documents. English geographer Richard Hakluyt referred to the “Gulfe of Mexico” in 1589, and Italian cartographer Baptista Boazio labeled it the “Baye of Mexico” on a 1586 map.

On January 20, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14172, titled “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness,” which directed the Secretary of the Interior to take all appropriate actions to rename as the ‘Gulf of America’ the U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the State of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba in the area formerly named as the Gulf of Mexico.

The Gulf of America Act requires the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to oversee the renaming process, with the Secretary of the Interior tasked with managing implementation. All references to the Gulf of Mexico in federal legal documents, regulations, and records would be considered references to the Gulf of America moving forward. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost of updating federal documents and maps to be less than $500,000 over the 2025-2030 period, subject to appropriated funds,

The bill moved through the House Committee on Natural Resources, with hearings and mark-up sessions held throughout the spring. It passed the House after two roll call votes and is now awaiting consideration in the Senate.

Rep. Mary E. Miller (R-IL) is among the bill’s co-sponsors, joining 17 other Republican lawmakers in supporting the measure.

Critics, including nearly all Democrats and a handful of Republicans, contend the bill is unnecessary and a distraction from more urgent national priorities such as the economy, healthcare, and public safety.

Rep. Don Bacon, the only Republican to vote against the bill, called it “juvenile,”.

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