Congresswoman Beatty to reintroduce the Woman on the Twenty Act of 2021
U.S. Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (OH-03), Chair of the powerful Congressional Black Caucus, is introducing this week the Woman on the Twenty Act of 2021, a bipartisan bill to honor the legacy of one of America’s most historically significant female figures, Harriet Tubman, and follow through on the American people’s choice to replace President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. Specifically, the bill would require any $20 bill printed after 2024 to prominently feature a portrait of the famous abolitionist. Reintroduction of the bill comes on the heels of an announcement by the Biden White House today that ‘we’re exploring ways to speed up that effort.’
“For several years, I worked directly with the Department of Treasury to plan the release of the new $20 design featuring Harriet Tubman to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment,” Beatty said. “The American people want our currency to better reflect the diversity of our great country.” She added, “I look forward to working with the Biden-Harris Administration, including the first-ever female Secretary of Treasury, Janet Yellen, to put a woman on the twenty and make the Tubman Twenty a reality.”
Beatty has fought throughout her time in Congress to secure a woman on our nation’s currency. In June 2015, she introduced the original Woman on the Twenty Act, directing the Secretary of Treasury to create a citizens’ panel to recommend a woman to be placed on a $20 bill. That same year, she spoke from the House floor in support of putting Harriet Tubman on the new $20. The following April, Beatty wrote a letter to former Secretary Lew, calling on the Department to fast track the new note and have it in circulation by 2020. Then, in 2017, Beatty wrote Mnuchin, urging him to recommit to the redesign of the twenty-dollar bill featuring Harriet Tubman. Last Congress, she took her actions a step further, authoring an updated version of the Woman on the Twenty Act expressly forbidding a new $20 to be printed without an image of Tubman, and Beatty also led a press conference, joined by a group of more than 30 Members of Congress, on the steps of the U.S. Department of Treasury to demand change. Most recently, to coincide with the Woman on the Twenty Act of 2021, she wrote an exclusive opinion piece published in The Hill calling for the production of the Tubman Twenty.
