WASHINGTON (AP) – With a change in management, it looks like Harriet Tubman is once again moving ahead of the $ 20 bill.
Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday that the Treasury Department is taking steps to resume efforts to put the 19th-century abolitionist leader on the $ 20 bill.
Obama administration Treasury Secretary Jack Lew chose Tubman to replace Andrew Jackson, the country’s seventh president, on the $ 20 bill.
But Tubman’s fate has been in doubt since the 2016 presidential campaign based on critical comments from then-candidate Donald Trump, who labeled the action “pure politically correct.”
Trump administration treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin did not advance the Obama administration’s decision. Instead, Mnuchin in 2019 announced a delay in redesigning the $ 20 bill in order to redesign the $ 10 and $ 50 bills first to improve security features to prevent counterfeiters.
The inauguration of the redesigned $ 20 bill with Tubman, famous for its efforts to bring slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad, was scheduled by the Obama administration to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the approval of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote.
According to the schedule announced by Mnuchin in May 2019, the redesigned $ 20 bill would not have come out until 2028, with the final projects for the account not announced until 2026.
But Psaki told reporters during a news conference on Monday that she and other officials were surprised to learn of delays in putting Tubman on the $ 20 bill. With the change in administrations, she said the Treasury Department is taking steps to resume efforts to put Tubman in the $ 20 account.
“It is important that our … money reflects the history and diversity of our country and the image of Harriet Tubman that graces the new $ 20 bill will certainly reflect that,” said Psaki. “We are exploring ways to accelerate this effort.”
Psaki said details of a new timetable for introducing a new $ 20 project with Tubman would be announced when finalized by the Treasury Department. Biden chose Janet Yellen to be his secretary of the Treasury, the first woman to hold that position in the department’s 232 years.