BESSENT SAID TREASURY WASN’T MOVING AHEAD WITH TUBMAN $20
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department was not moving forward with the Harriet Tubman $20 bill, and he gave no reason.
Bessent made the remarks to Spectrum News on July 6, 2026, when he was asked whether the redesign was still on track. His answer was blunt: “We are not, at present,” Yahoo News reported.
The proposal would put Tubman on the $20 bill in place of the portrait of Alexander Hamilton. Reuters reported that Treasury was no longer planning to go ahead with it.
Bessent talked about a different bill instead. He said a new $250 bill would need an act of Congress “because you can’t have a living person [on U.S. currency].” Reports had described efforts to put Trump’s image on that proposed note.
He also said changing an existing bill takes many years of advance work.
How the plan got stuck
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced on April 20, 2016, that Tubman would appear on the $20 bill. The initial target was to have the redesigned note out by 2020.
President Donald Trump’s first administration delayed the redesign. Reuters reported that no progress was made on the proposal during that first term.
Former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen later revived the project. She cited anti-counterfeiting requirements in setting a timeline for the new currency, Tucson.com reported. Anti-counterfeiting measures were also Treasury’s stated reason for delays in earlier years.
The slow pace has long angered people connected to Tubman’s legacy. Ernestine Wyatt, described as a relation of Tubman, told CNN in an earlier interview that the delay “smacks of racist rhetoric.” She also said, “It’s just another delay and a diversion for what’s going on.”
What happened next
On July 30, 2026, Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Chris Van Hollen led a group of senators in a letter to Bessent. They asked Treasury to explain its position and reconsider.
“We urge you to immediately reconsider and resume plans to create the new bill without further delay,” the letter said, according to Shaheen’s office.
The senators asked for a Treasury briefing by August 12, 2026. Their statement said Treasury had put resources into circulating multiple coins with Trump’s likeness and had plans for a $250 bill depicting him.
The senators also said the Tubman proposal emerged from a public-engagement process.
On August 20, 2026, Representatives Joyce Beatty and John W. Mannion sent Bessent their own letter. They said his remarks had left constituents and Americans confused and disappointed.
The pair asked Treasury to resume the Tubman redesign and disclose its status. In a release, Beatty’s office said they also wanted a transparent timeline.
