Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) is done with former President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill.
The New Hampshire Democrat is leading an effort to replace Jackson with a woman, “because this is an idea whose time has come.”
“Putting a women on the $20 bill would be a great way to honor the tremendous contributions women have made to our society,” Shaheen said in a Youtube video this week explaining the push.
In a letter to President Obama Thursday, Shaheen and Sens. 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 (D-WI), call for the administration to convene a panel to select a women to be placed on the twenty.
“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,” they wrote.
The letter recounts the “grassroots campaign” to replace Jackson with a woman and the recent online vote which selected Harriet Tubman as the campaign’s top replacement choice.
Shaheen’s bill, the “Women on the Twenty Act,” does not specify which woman should be selected, just that it be a woman.
The senators in their letter note, however, that the legislation would not be needed if Obama just went ahead and appointed the panel.
“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,” the write. “Establishing this panel would get this process underway and allow for appropriate public input, including from the recent online polling results.”
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