State Rep. David Standridge (R-Hayden), unfazed by his legislation failing to reach the finish line in the 2025 regular legislative session, has re-filed his bill renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Standridge passionately sponsored a virtually identical bill during the 2025 session. However, like dozens of other House bills, it died on the legislative vine in the Senate due to Democratic filibustering, after initially failing and then passing a Senate committee.
"We were very optimistic that it would get through the Senate, but it got to the last few days and it got mixed up in all the filibusters and all that on the last day," Standridge told 1819 News.
While the bill had unanimous support among GOP lawmakers, House Democrats brought fierce criticism to Standridge's bill during the debate in mid-April this year, to the point that House leadership clotured the debate after over an hour of Democratic ranting.
SEE: House clotures debate, passes bill renaming Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America
Despite the pushback from the minority party, the bill cleared the House with a party-line vote of 72-26.
In addition to requiring the official renaming to the Gulf of America, House Bill 2 (HB2), Standridge's bill for the 2026 legislative session, would also require all state and local entities and their employees to observe and implement the name change where practicable.
The provisions in HB2, also known as the Gulf of America Act, would not compel compliance with the new law, so long as doing so would impose an operational or financial burden on the state or local entity and its employees.
It would also allow a public K-12 school or public institution of higher education to use the term 'Gulf of Mexico' within a larger course of academic instruction when reasonable for historical purposes."
Standridge told 1819 News that he believed the bill was necessary to align the state with a recent executive order from President Donald Trump, which started the nationwide discussion on the Gulf's renaming, as well as
"I think it's an important issue," Standridge said. "Number one, a presidential executive order changed the name to the Gulf of America, so now, it affects things in our state like resources that have to be purchased: textbooks, maps, things that have to do with our state parks. All different kinds of resources. The reason for the bill is really just to make it clear what they need to purchase, where we would be using the Gulf of America. So, it wouldn't be a question. They would know what they needed to purchase and what it's going to go by."
"It's even more important now, since the State of Florida has passed legislation naming it the Gulf of America. And I do know that the Louisiana Governor did an executive order on the changing of the name to the Gulf of America. So, us being one of the Gulf states, I think we should try to have consistency. And I think it's important for our educators, our students, and people in general."
The starting date for the 2026 legislative session has yet to be announced. However, it will almost certainly start earlier, due to the election season.
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