By Jim Saunders ©2025 The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — Forget the Gulf of Mexico. In Florida, it’s the Gulf of America.
At least that’s the message the Republican-controlled Legislature wants to send.
The Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill that would change dozens of state laws to carry out President Donald Trump’s directive that the Gulf of Mexico should be called the Gulf of America. The Senate also gave a final sign-off to a bill that would require the name change to start being reflected in materials at state agencies and schools.
The House already had passed the bills, meaning they are ready to go to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to sign them.
The bills (HB 549 and HB 575) passed the Senate in 28-9 votes. All Republicans supported the bills. Senate Minority Leader Jason Pizzo, D-Sunny Isles Beach, also voted for both; Sen. Tracie Davis, D-Jacksonville, and Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, each voted for one of the bills.
Sen. Nick DiCeglie, an Indian Rocks Beach Republican who sponsored the bill about changing state laws, said the name change reflects the United States as an “exceptional” country.
“Genuinely, to me, this is about patriotism,” DiCeglie said.
But Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boca Raton, said the lawmakers were “spending time on a “symbolic gesture that offers no tangible benefits” and suggested the change was being made for political reasons. She said lawmakers should focus on other issues such as property insurance and education.
“A renaming serves no practical purpose,” Berman said.
Trump’s executive order in January directed the secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior to “rename the Gulf of Mexico as the ‘Gulf of America’ in order to recognize the importance of the body of water to the United States.”
After the executive order, DeSantis jumped on the issue. In an order he issued about a winter storm, DeSantis referred to an “area of low pressure moving across the Gulf of America.”
Trump’s executive order, however, couldn’t change state laws.
As an example of the changes that would be made by the bill about state laws (HB 575), legal descriptions of boundaries of gulf-front counties from Escambia to Collier include references to the Gulf of Mexico. Those would change to the Gulf of America.
The other bill (HB 549) would require state agencies to update “geographic materials” to reflect the name change. Also, it would require that school instructional materials adopted or purchased as of July 1 include the Gulf of America name.
Senate sponsor Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, described the bill as “common sense.”
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