Congress votes to rename Gulf of Mexico—at federal agencies' expense
H.R. 276 — Gulf of America Act · Filed by Marjorie Greene (R-GA) · 17 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 9, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
This bill renames the Gulf of Mexico to the 'Gulf of America' in all federal documents, maps, regulations, and records. The Secretary of the Interior must oversee the change, and all federal agencies have 180 days to update their materials to reflect the new name.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole function is to change the official name of a geographic feature in federal records. It is a symbolic act with no regulatory, fiscal, or substantive policy content.
What the text implies
- International maritime treaties, agreements, and charts referencing the Gulf of Mexico may require renegotiation or clarification to avoid confusion with U.S. federal nomenclature.
- State and local governments, private entities, and educational institutions are not bound by this federal renaming and may continue using 'Gulf of Mexico,' creating a two-tier naming system.
- The 180-day implementation deadline creates a one-time administrative cost across all federal agencies with no estimate of total expense provided in the bill.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill imposes a compliance burden on federal agencies (document and map updates across 180 days) and creates ongoing administrative cost with no offsetting public benefit. The renaming itself is purely symbolic and does not improve services, protections, or transparency for ordinary citizens.
Named in the bill
Secretary of the Interior, Board on Geographic Names, Federal agencies, Gulf of Mexico
Where it stands
17 cosponsors: 17 Republicans.
- Jan 9, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 9, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources”
- Mar 25, 2025 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Hearings Held”
- Apr 9, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Apr 9, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute by the Yeas and Nays: 24 - 17”
- May 8, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On passage Passed by recorded vote: 211 - 206 (Roll no. 122).”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,000 characters) on Jul 10, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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