President Biden’s Treasury Division is learning methods to hurry up the method of including Harriet Tubman’s portrait to the entrance of the $20 in
President Biden’s Treasury Division is learning methods to hurry up the method of including Harriet Tubman’s portrait to the entrance of the $20 invoice after the Trump administration allowed the Obama-era initiative to lapse, Jen Psaki, the White Home press secretary, stated on Monday.
The choice to have Ms. Tubman change Andrew Jackson because the face of the $20 be aware was set in movement in 2016 by the Treasury secretary on the time, Jacob Lew. President Donald J. Trump opposed the thought, and his Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, stopped work on that a part of the foreign money redesign, arguing that including new safety features to the cash was a extra pressing precedence. Mr. Mnuchin stated that notes with new imagery couldn’t be put into circulation till 2028 and {that a} future Treasury secretary would make the decision whether or not to switch Jackson.
The Treasury Division, which Mr. Biden has nominated Janet L. Yellen to guide, plans to speed up that timeline.
“The Treasury Division is taking steps to renew efforts to place Harriet Tubman on the entrance of the brand new $20 notes,” Ms. Psaki stated. “It’s vital that our cash replicate the historical past and variety of our nation.”
Mr. Trump professed to be a fan Andrew Jackson, a fellow populist, and was a fierce opponent of altering historic photos and statues.
Mr. Mnuchin’s determination to slow-walk the change drew backlash from some Democrats in Congress and triggered a probe from the Treasury inspector normal about whether or not the method confronted improper political interference. The inquiry discovered no wrongdoing by Mr. Mnuchin.
Underneath Mr. Lew’s plan, the brand new design was presupposed to be unveiled in 2020 on the centennial of the 19th Modification, which granted girls the precise to vote.
Preliminary designs of the be aware that had been obtained by The New York Occasions revealed that —earlier than Mr. Trump took workplace — conceptual work on a invoice bearing Tubman’s likeness on the entrance and a statue of Jackson on the again was already underway.