U.S. House: Teaching Geography is Fundamental Act

In the 112^th Congress, Teaching Geography is Fundamental (TGIF) was introduced in the House by Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) as H.R.885 with Representative Tom Petri (R-WI) and Representative Tim Walz (D-MN) signing on as lead co-sponsors.

TGIF is bi-partisan legislation that would create funding for a grant program in the Department of Education to support efforts to improve geography education. The rationale for TGIF is that it corrects the oversight that left geography as the only one of the nine federally-recognized core academic subjects not to have received dedicated federal funding in the past 10 years (since the enactment of No Child Left Behind).