The U.S. Treasury Department has put plans for a Harriet Tubman $20 bill on hold. The decision was announced by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a Monday interview with Spectrum News. When asked if the Treasury was still planning to move ahead with the decade-old plan, Bessent replied, “We are not at present.” He did not elaborate, and a Treasury spokesperson declined to comment beyond Bessent’s remark.
Background
The Obama administration announced in 2016 that Tubman, who was born into slavery in the early 1820s and went on to help hundreds of slaves escape, would replace seventh U.S. President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. Then-Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said the decision was the result of thousands of responses received from Americans. Tubman would have been the first African American on the face of U.S. paper currency.
During his first presidential campaign, Donald Trump called the move to replace Jackson with Tubman “pure political correctness.” He had proposed putting her on the $2 bill or another bill, and no progress was made on the plan during Trump’s first presidency. Bessent’s predecessor, former Biden administration Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, revived the Tubman $20 bill project but estimated that the new currency would not be ready until 2030, citing the need for sophisticated anti-counterfeiting measures.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
