Biden Looks to Speed Up Putting Harriet Tubman on $20 Bill

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Treasury Department will resume Obama-era plans to put abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill and President Joe Biden wants to accelerate the process, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.

U.S. money should “reflect the history and diversity of our country and Harriet Tubman’s image gracing the new $20 note would certainly reflect that,” she said at a briefing for reporters. “We’re exploring ways to speed up that effort.”

Tubman, a former slave who helped others to freedom, was to become the first woman and first minority to appear on U.S. paper currency. Andrew Jackson, the seventh U.S. president, is currently on $20 bills.

The Trump administration slowed those plans, announced during Barack Obama’s presidency. Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced in 2019 that $20 bills with portraits other than Jackson wouldn’t circulate until 2028, and he declined to commit to placing Tubman’s picture on the currency.

Tubman escaped slavery and became a leading figure in the movement to abolish the practice before the Civil War. She led hundreds to freedom along the Underground Railroad to the North, where slavery was banned. During the Civil War, she served as a spy for the Union Army.

(Updates with Psaki comment in second paragraph.)