Alabama Republicans want to force state and local agencies to adopt President Donald Trump’s name change from the current Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America.”
A bill introduced this week would officially recognize the name change and force all entities in the state to change the name. That would mean spending a large chunk of change on creating new maps, road signs, school textbooks and educational materials.
Trump authorized the name change with an executive order, but that order wouldn’t require other world entities accept the change — meaning most of the rest of the world would continue calling it the Gulf of Mexico, named so in the 1500s when Spanish explorers were understood to have to cross the body of water to reach Mexico.
The legislation proposed by Rep. David Standridge and co-sponsored by 56 other House Republicans says the change wouldn’t be required if it places a significant financial hardship on the state. The official price tag is not currently known.
The change would go into effect July 1 of this year if passed.
