WASHINGTON, D.C. — White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that the Biden administration is exploring ways to speed up the effort to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.
“The Treasury Department is taking steps to resume efforts to put Harriet Tubman on the front of the new $20 notes,” said Psaki when a reporter asked for a timeline on the effort.
Tubman, a former slave and abolitionist, would replace Andrew Jackson, a slave-holding former president, on the $20 currency.
Psaki noted that it’s important that our notes, or bills, are reflective of the history and diversity of our country.
“And Harriet Tubman’s image on the new $20 note would certainly reflect that,” said Psaki.
She ended her remarks on the subject by saying any specifics about the effort would come from the Treasury Department.
The effort to put Tubman and other female historical figures on the nation’s money began in 2016, when Obama era Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew announced the historically symbolic makeover. The Obama administration’s timeline would have had the design of the bill unveiled in 2020, 100 years after the 19th Amendment established women’s right to vote.
Last year, however, the Trump administration said it had no plans to unveil a new $20 bill with Tubman on it. The Treasury Department has maintained that the plan was never realistic, The New York Times reports. And then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said last summer that a new $20 bill wouldn’t be released until 2030.