SHAHEEN ASKS GIRLS IN NASHUA: WHAT WOMAN WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE ON THE $20 BILL?

(NASHUA, NH) – This afternoon, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) had a conversation with girls participating in Girls Inc. programs in Nashua about important women in U.S. history. Senator Shaheen also discussed her recently introduced legislation that would finally have a woman represented on our paper currency, the Women on Twenty Act. During the interactive discussion, Senator Shaheen talked about several inspiring women she thought would be good candidates to be depicted on the next twenty dollar bill and their exceptional contributions to U.S. history, including Abigail Adams, Rosa Parks, Frances Perkins, Eleanor Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman and New Hampshire’s own Christa McAuliffe. She then asked these students who they thought should be on the twenty dollar bill.

“It’s so important that girls know at an early age that they too can grow up and do something great for their country,” said Senator Shaheen. “Our paper currency is an important part of our everyday lives and reflects our values, traditions and history as Americans. It’s long overdue for that reflection to include the contributions of women.  It was such a pleasure to talk to these girls about the women they look up to and hear who they’d like to see honored with a portrait on the twenty.”

Senator Shaheen’s bill (S. 925) the Women on the Twenty Act, 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. The legislation complements a grassroots campaign, Women on 20s (or “W20”), which has garnered hundreds of thousands of online votes in support of the change.

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.