Speaker Mike Johnson is running into some resistance from fellow House Republicans on a bill to codify President Donald Trump’s push to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon said Tuesday he will oppose the vote later this week, which is expected in the House Thursday, complicating matters for Johnson and GOP leaders in their slim majority.
At this point in the week, two GOP leadership sources told CNN they still believe the bill can pass, though Johnson cannot afford to lose many more votes. Few, if any, Democrats are expected to vote for the bill, according to multiple Democratic members and senior aides.
“It just seems juvenile,” Bacon told CNN. “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.”
The bill, which was authored by Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, would require federal agencies to update all maps and documents with the “Gulf of America” instead of the Gulf of Mexico.
Bacon is not the only House Republican who is throwing cold water on the measure.
The issue came up during a heated meeting of House Republicans on Monday night, in which Bacon, along with Reps. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin and Jay Obernolte of California, criticized the bill, according to a person in the room.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer then urged members not to choose this issue as their “hill to die on,” that person said.
The White House seized on the issue in recent weeks in a dispute with The Associated Press that has led to court involvement. As a global news outlet with customers all around the world, the AP said it will continue using the name “Gulf of Mexico” in its news coverage and influential stylebook while still acknowledging the new “Gulf of America” name.
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