The Trump administration has canceled a decade-long plan to put Harriet Tubman on the cover of the $20 bill.
In 2016, the Obama administration announced a new $20 bill was in the works featuring Tubman, who led hundreds of slaves to freedom in the South.
President Barack Obama signed a bill for a Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad monument in Maryland on March 25, 2013. He also announced plans to place the abolitionist on the $20 bill.
The new $20 bill was set to debut in 2020, but President Joe Biden (pictured left) shelved the plan.
On Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department formally announced the plan to place Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill is dead.
The $20 bill currently features former President Andrew Jackson.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump Administration had no plans to change the $20 bill. 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 be approved by Congress.
“The [$250 bill] requires an act of Congress, because you can’t have a living person (on U.S. currency), and it was for the 250th anniversary,” Bessent said. “For us to change an existing bill, whether it’s $1 through $100, takes many years in advance.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire), who introduced legislation as far back as 2015 to place Tubman on the $20, said she is “extremely disappointed.”
“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.”