Senators urge Yellen to prioritize redesign of the $20 bill
The effort to make Harriet Tubman the face of the $20 note got a bipartisan push this week as two senators urged Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to prioritize the planned redesign that stalled during the Trump administration.
Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Ben Sasse, R-Neb., sent a letter to Yellen this week making the case that America’s currency should reflect the diversity of the country. They lamented that the plan put in place by the Obama administration in 2016, to unveil a $20 note design in 2020 with Tubman’s image on the front, was not carried out by former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
“We hope sincerely that is no longer the case, and encourage the prioritization of Ms. Tubman before working on other redesigns,” they wrote. “We stand ready to offer any support for your efforts to ensure this towering figure in our nation’s history receives the recognition she has deserved for so long.”
The Biden administration said last month that Yellen would be studying ways to speed up the process of adding Tubman’s portrait to the front of the $20 bill.
“It’s important that our money reflect the history and diversity of our country,” said Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary.
A Treasury spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment about whether the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which the department oversees, had resumed the redesign featuring Tubman.
Work on the redesign had started under the watch of former President Barack Obama’s Treasury secretary, Jacob Lew, but Mnuchin said that enhancing the security features of the new notes took priority over changes to the imagery. Former President Donald Trump had previously expressed his disapproval of the idea of replacing President Andrew Jackson, a fellow populist, with Tubman, a former slave and abolitionist.
The Advanced Counterfeit Deterrence Steering Committee laid out plans in 2013 for the redesign of the $10 and $5 notes to occur before the $20.
Shaheen and several House Democrats have been vocal supporters of the initiative to replace Jackson with Tubman as the face of the $20. Few Republican lawmakers have expressed public support for the change.