Shaheen Leads Senate Letter to the President: Put a Woman on the Twenty

Press Release

Today on social media, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) announced that she's sending a letter from the Senate to President Obama urging him to begin the process for putting a women on the $20 dollar bill. The letter was signed by supporters of Shaheen's Women on the Twenty Act which include U.S. Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Angus King (I-ME), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Tammy Baldwin (WI) and reads:

"We write today to urge you to begin the process for selecting a woman whose likeness will be placed on the $20 bill. We have introduced legislation, the Women on the Twenty Act, which would task the Treasury Secretary with appointing a new citizens panel to determine a woman whose likeness will be featured on a new $20 bill … We recognize that it is fully within the Administration's powers to convene such a panel without Congressional direction and we encourage you to do so as soon as possible. Establishing this panel would get this process underway and allow for appropriate public input, including from the recent online polling results."

The call for action follows a nationwide grassroots movement led by the group, Women on 20s, which held an online poll that gathered over 600,000 votes and selected Harriet Tubman as the top choice. This afternoon, Shaheen also introduced legislation that would direct the Treasury Secretary to put Harriet Tubman's likeness on the $20 dollar bill by 2017.