Nationwide — The Trump administration has stopped moving forward with plans to feature Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department is not currently working on the decade-old proposal to replace Andrew Jackson’s image with Tubman’s.
According to Reuters, Bessent confirmed the change when he was asked whether the Treasury Department still planned to continue the project. He did not provide additional details, and a Treasury spokesperson declined to comment further.
The Obama administration first announced the plan in 2016 after receiving thousands of public responses about redesigning U.S. currency. The proposal would have placed Tubman, a former enslaved woman who helped hundreds of enslaved people escape through the Underground Railroad, on the front of the $20 bill.
If completed, Tubman would have become the first African American featured on the face of U.S. paper currency. Former President Donald Trump criticized the idea during his first presidential campaign, calling the move “pure political correctness” and suggesting Tubman could appear on a different bill instead.
The project did not move forward during Trump’s first presidency. Former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen later restarted the effort under the Biden administration and said the redesigned bill would likely not be available until 2030 because of security and anti-counterfeiting requirements.
Bessent also faced questions about the bill’s status in 2025 during a congressional hearing. When Representative Joyce Beatty asked for an update, Bessent said his staff would provide more information later.
The Treasury Department has not added a new person to U.S. paper currency since 1928. While the Harriet Tubman $20 bill remains on hold, some officials have discussed a possible $250 bill featuring Trump as part of celebrations for the United States’ 250th anniversary.
“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,” he said, adding, “For us to change an existing bill, whether it’s $1 through $100, takes many years in advance.”