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Lawmakers will try again next year to rename Gulf of Mexico

Renaming the gulf to the “Gulf of America” was one of President Donald Trump’s first acts in his second term.

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Alabama lawmakers failed in the 2025 session to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” but a bill has already been filed to pursue the name change in the next session.

The federal government initiated the change when President Donald Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office. 

House Bill 2 by Rep. David Standridge, R-Oneonta, would align state practice with the federal. Standridge brought a substantially similar bill in the last session, HB247, that made it through the House but failed to make it to the Senate floor for a vote. 

The change would require that state and local entities refer to the body of water as the Gulf of America wherever practicable, and would require the updating of maps and other resources that refer to the gulf.

The bill includes some tweaks that were made during its journey last year, including a clause that frees state and local entities from making changes to pre-existing resources if it would impose an “operational or financial burden.” 

It also allows K-12 schools and universities to refer to the gulf as the Gulf of Mexico “within a larger course of academic instruction when reasonable for historical purposes.”

The bill as filed states the effective date would be October. 1, 2025 if passed, but the next legislative session does not begin until 2026. The effective date appears to be a carry-over from the 2025 bill.

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Jacob Holmes is a reporter at the Alabama Political Reporter. You can reach him at [email protected]

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