$20 bill redesign featuring Harriet Tubman put on hold for 8 years

Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said Wednesday the $20 bill redesign featuring Harriet Tubman would not meet the 2020 deadline and instead be delayed until 2028.

Mnuchin told the House Financial Services Committee that the design process had been delayed and that no new imagery would be released until 2028. He said other denominations had been deemed more crucial to being redesigned than the $20 bill.

Release of the proposed new bill had been set to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote.

The Tubman $20 bill was approved in 2016 after a 10-month process that included public comment.

Before he was elected, President Trump called the decision to put Tubman on the currency “pure political correctness.” He said that her likeness should be put on the $2 bill.

New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who backed a campaign to put a female face on a $20 bill by 2020, said there’s no excuse for the eight-year delay announced by the Treasury secretary.

Shaheen, a Democrat, said the delay sent an “unmistakable message to women and girls, and communities of color.”

She recently reintroduced the Harriet Tubman Tribute Act to honor women on the nation’s currency.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.