By Jasper Ward and David Lawder
WASHINGTON, July 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department is no longer planning to put anti-slavery crusader Harriet Tubman on a $20 bill, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has told Spectrum News.
“We are not at present,” Bessent said when asked in a Monday interview if Treasury was still planning to move ahead with the decade-old plan. Bessent did not elaborate, and a Treasury spokesperson declined to comment beyond Bessent’s remark.
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, who has since sought to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusioninitiatives, 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.
Bessent, in a tense exchange with Representative Joyce Beatty, a Black Democrat from Ohio, was asked in May 2025 whether he could provide an update on the status of the Tubman bill. “I can’t, my staff will get back to you,” he replied.
While no new person has been put on U.S. paper currency since 1928, some officials in the current Trump administration have sought to put the Republican president’s face on a proposed $250 bill to mark the United States’ 250th anniversary of independence.
When asked why the Treasury Department is not moving forward with a $20 note with Tubman’s image while making preparations for a $250 bill with Trump’s portrait, Bessent told Spectrum News: “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.”
“For us to change an existing bill, whether it’s $1 through $100, takes many years in advance,” he added.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward and David Lawder in Washington; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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