Trump Administration ends near decade long plan for Harriet Tubman to be on $20 bill

Originally proposed under the Obama Administration in 2016, the $20 bill featuring Tubman was originally set to debut in 2020 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment.

The Treasury Department on Monday formally announced the abandonment of a plan to place noted abolitionist and general Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.

When asked about the bill by Spectrum News, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump Administration was “not at present” to change the bill as had been planned by President Barack Obama a decade ago. However, Bessent clarified that while there are rumored plans for Trump’s face to appear on a $250 bill, any new bill would have to pass Congress.

“The 250 requires an act of Congress, because you can’t have a living person (on U.S. currency), and it was to commit [sic] – for the 250th anniversary,” Bessent said. “For us to change an existing bill, whether it’s $1 through $100 takes many years in advance.”

The feeling on Capitol Hill about the proposed Tubman being ended by the current administration wasn’t lost on Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire). Shaheen, who had introduced legislation as far as 2015 to place Tubman on the $20 as opposed to former President Andrew Jackson, said she was “extremely disappointed to hear that Secretary Bessent has halted plans to put Harriet Tubman’s likeness on the $20 bill.”

“Commemorating Harriet Tubman would have been the perfect way to honor the women who helped build this country and bravely stood up for freedom and equality throughout our nation’s remarkable 250-year history,” Shaheen said in a statement. “Though Secretary Bessent may be more interested in illegally plastering Donald Trump’s image on a $250 bill, putting a woman on a U.S. bill remains long overdue, and I will keep focusing on finding a path to honor Harriet Tubman’s patriotism and sacrifice.” 

The timeline of Tubman’s placement on the $20 has been several stops and starts since the idea was introduced during the Obama Administration. During his first campaign, Trump called the idea “pure political correctness” and suggested it would be “more appropriate” for her to be on a lower-denomination bill rather than replacing Jackson during his first term in the White House. In 2019, then-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said that designs of the updated bill featuring Tubman would be delayed until 2028.

President Biden revived the idea and was potentially going to expedite it into fruition.

“The Treasury Department is taking steps to resume efforts to put Harriet Tubman on the front of the new $20 notes,” Jen Psaki, the then White House press secretary, said during a news briefing in January 2021. “It’s important that our notes, our money … reflect the history and diversity of our country, and Harriet Tubman’s image gracing the new $20 note would certainly reflect that,” she added. “So we’re exploring ways to speed up that effort.”

In February 2022, then Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told theGrio that the bill would likely arrive in 2030.

“We know that putting Dr. Angelou on the quarter is just the beginning of the work ahead to make our currency and coinage reflect the totality of the diversity of this country, including placing Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill,” Yellen said at the time.

Now it appears the Trump Administration has quashed the proposal, which was originally set to debut in 2020 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote following the suffrage movement.