Cnn
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The Chamber adopted a bill led by the Republicans who would rename the Gulf of Mexico in the Gulf of America, approaching the push of the codification of President Donald Trump to rename the water.
The bill, which the legislators approved during a 211-206 vote, now moves to the Senate led by Les Républicains. A republican, the representative Don Bacon of Nebraska, voted on Thursday with the Democrats against the measure.
Sponsored by the representative of Trump Ally Marjorie Taylor Greene and supported by House Gop Leadership, the bill would oblige federal agencies to update all the cards and documents by the name of the Gulf of America.
The effort has aroused criticism from certain republican legislators, highlighting tensions within the party and raising questions before the House vote to find out if the measure would have sufficient support to adopt given the thin republican majority of the Chamber.
Bacon told CNN earlier this week that he would not vote for the bill, arguing that “it seems just juvenile”.
“We are the United States of America. We are not Germany or Napoleon of Kaiser Wilhelm,” he said, adding: “We are better than that. It just looks like a second thing to do.”
The Democrats of the Chamber, on the other hand, have severely criticized the decision of the Republicans to vote on the bill, calling it loss of time and dollars of taxpayers.
Democratic representative Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania said that legislation “could be the stretching bill brought on the ground” when she served in the Congress.
“With all the important work that this congress should tackle, the president and the republicans of the Chamber have chosen to engage in the president for a whim that the American public does not support,” she said on the floor of the room on Tuesday.
During his first day in power, Trump signed an executive decree leading the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Golfe of America. Government agencies and the American coast guard have already started using the Golfe of America, while other countries have not recognized the name change.
“The American people are based on the bill to protect and secure maritime navigable waterways for trade to be carried out. Our American armed forces protect the area against any military threat from foreign countries,” Taylor Greene said in a statement when they presented the bill in January.
“This is our Gulf. The legitimate name is the Gulf of America and this is what the whole world should refer to it, “she said.
The White House has entered the question in recent weeks in a dispute with the Associated Press which has led to participation in the courts.
Trump, as CNN has reported, also plans that the United States is starting to refer to the Persian Gulf like the Gulf of Arabia or the Persian Gulf.
The expected announcement is linked to his trip to the Middle East next week, where he will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, according to two administration officials close to the discussions. Officials added that conversations concerning change are underway, and we still do not know when the president will advertise.
