SENATOR SHAHEEN CONGRATULATES WOMEN ON 20s MOVEMENT ON VOTE

(WASHINGTON, DC) – Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) today congratulated the Women on 20s grassroots movement for mobilizing more than 600,000 people to vote for the woman they’d like to see on the $20 bill. With Mother’s Day as the deadline for voting, the Women on 20s movement today announced Harriet Tubman as the winner of their online poll. Women on 20s also recently announced a new online initiative to urge action by the President using the hashtag #DearMrPresident.

“Thanks to this extremely successful grassroots campaign, the American people have sent a message loud and clear that the time is now to recognize the contributions of women on our paper currency,” said Shaheen. “And that message is also being heard in Washington where my legislation to put a woman on the twenty dollar bill is gaining momentum. I hope the administration hears that message and takes action to place a woman on the $20 bill. This is clearly an idea whose time has come, and I applaud Women on 20s for their tremendous efforts.”

Inspired by Women on 20s grassroots efforts, Senator Shaheen last month introduced the Women on the Twenty Act, legislation that would direct the Secretary of the Treasury to convene a panel of citizens to recommend a woman whose likeness would be featured on a new twenty dollar bill. Although our paper currency has been redesigned several times to improve legibility and prevent counterfeiting, the portraits on the seven main bill denominations have not changed in nearly a century. Those portraits were chosen by a special Treasury-appointed panel of citizens in the late 1920s. The Shaheen legislation would allow for a new citizen panel to be appointed that would take into consideration the input of the American public to select a woman to honor in this way. 

Co-sponsors of the Women on the Twenty Act include Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Patty Murray (D-WA).