MONTGOMERY — The Alabama House of Representatives was forced to close out debate on legislation renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America after Democrats spent over an hour railing against the bill.
House Bill 247 (HB247) by State Rep. David Standridge (R-Hayden) would officially rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and require all state and local entities and their employees to observe and implement the name change, where practicable.
The bill had nearly 50 Republican cosponsors. However, when it came to the House floor, Democratic lawmakers used significant time to vigorously protest it, leading leadership to invoke cloture on the debate.
"As we all know, our president signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in January," Standridge told the House. "This would make it into law for our state purposes that we would recognize this and rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America."
The majority of Democratic pushback centered around the perception of the bill as gratuitous.
"We're spending precious time with this important body of policymakers, and we're not focusing on things that are not going to move Alabama forward," said State Rep. Barbara Drummond (D-Mobile). "That's why I stand here. I'm standing here for South Alabama."
Others expressed concern over potential confusion in classrooms, tourism and other areas that would be affected by the name change.
"I'm afraid that we're going to cause confusion with what we have here," said State Rep. Sam Jones (D-Mobile). "Because there is nowhere I know of in this world that considers the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. You might know some places, but I don't know that we're in a position to call ourselves the Gulf of America if we're just speaking for one state."
State Rep. TaShina Morris (D-Montgomery) gave a confusing and often incoherent reasoning for her opposition to the bill, claiming it was identical to the expelling of "black Indians" from the state through name changes.
"I don't know if you know about the Trail of Tears, but that's when all the black Indians were pushed out of the land from Mobile, Mississippi, and all of those places," Morris said. "And, again, that came about with all these different name changes."
She continued, "Later on down the line, this body, your grandkids, your great, great great, grandkids gonna pull up the information and somebody's grandkids, great, great grandkids gonna be ashamed, gonna feel bad and want to separate themselves from that family lineage based on what it is we that we do inside this House, because everybody doesn't be on board."
Despite the pushback, the bill passed 72-26, sending it to the Senate for deliberation.
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