There are no current plans for Harriet Tubman to be featured on the $20 bill.
Spectrum Local News reports that a redesign was announced by then-Treasury Secretary Jack Lew during President Barack Obama’s administration in 2016. The purpose of the redesign, which was expected to circulate in 2020, was to commemorate Tubman, who is credited with leading about 70 enslaved people to freedom as a conductor on the Underground Railroad.
In 2023, a Treasury Department spokesperson said that its redesigns, which also included the $5 and $10 bills, were in the works and that instructions had been issued to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to ramp up the project, Time reported.
“The process of currency redesign is complex and was always expected to extend beyond the span of one administration,” the spokesperson said, according to Time.
The redesign of the $20 bill has yet to materialize. During President Donald Trump’s first presidential term, it was announced that the redesign would be pushed back until 2026 to allow time for new anti-counterfeiting technology to be developed for the new bill, according to Spectrum Local News.
After seeking an update on whether the Treasury still intended to feature Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the outlet, “We are not at present.”
Although preparations for Tubman’s bill have halted, the Treasury is moving forward to add President Trump’s portrait to the $250 bill.
Bessent separately provided more context for this move, telling Spectrum Local 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.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who has been a longtime advocate for placing Tubman on the $20 bill, was “extremely disappointed to hear that Secretary Bessent has halted plans to put Harriet Tubman’s likeness on the $20 bill,” Spectrum Local News reports.
“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,” she continued.
