PoliticoBiden administration ramping up efforts to put Harriet Tubman on US$20 bill

The Trump administration had pushed off the effort, which would remove former president and slave owner Andrew Jackson from the front of the note

White House spokeswoman says America’s currency should ‘reflect the history and diversity of our country’

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A Capitol Hill staff member places signs on the steps of the US Treasury Department before a news conference in June 2019 on the decision to indefinitely delay putting famous abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the new US$20 bill. Photo: Reuters

Published: 4:22am, 26 Jan 2021Updated: 7:13am, 26 Jan 2021

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Nick Niedzwiadek on politico.com on January 25, 2021.

US President Joe Biden is looking to resume work to redesign the US$20 bill to feature abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

“The Treasury department is taking steps to resume efforts to put Harriet Tubman on the front of the new US$20 notes,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday.

She added that America's currency should “reflect the history and diversity of our country, and Harriet Tubman's image gracing the new US$20 note would certainly reflect that”.

A wax likeness of the renowned abolitionist Harriet Tubman is unveiled at the Presidents Gallery by Madame Tussauds in Washington in February 2012. Photo: AP

The effort, initiated late in former president Barack Obama’s second term, was backburnered by the Trump administration under ex-Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin.