Immediately after taking the White House, Biden promised that he would make it a priority to push through replacing Andrew Jackson the twenty-dollar bill with slave abolitionist Harriet Tubman. However, four months in, there is still no movement to make this a reality and the former Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of the Treasury knows the exact reason why. According to Crowley the reasoning is, “Given the complexity of the process, it’s no wonder the Biden administration has also decided not to accelerate the bill’s release, if they release it at all.”
I agree one thousand percent with this statement. There is little to no evidence to suggest that Biden is even planning to make the switch on the bill. And it is not for the lack of trying on the part of those that want to see Tubman grace the twenty-dollar bill. Biden made a promise to honor the contributions of women and people of color during his presidency. Currently, there is no reason to believe that Biden would even accomplish this even if he was elected again.
It was during Obama’s time as president that a young girl suggested the idea of replacing Jackson with Tubman back in 2014. During Trump’s presidency, it was announced that they would push to make this happen but the process has been extremely slow. The Trump administration was sticking to the timeline but that timeline unfortunately ran over into Biden’s presidency.
Despite multiple members of congress asking for Biden’s timeline on the change, there has been no response. They are met with silence or excuses. It is not just the change on the twenty-dollar bill that people are waiting for, but also the American Council for the Blind have also been waiting on changes. They sued for changes to be made so people who are seeing impaired are able to tell the difference between the different bills. Just like those who want to see Harriett Tubman on the $20 bill, they are also waiting on the Biden administration.
All and all, this is not surprising. Biden so far has made numerous promises and yet we are all waiting. Only four months in, this appears to be the theme of the current administration. It just feels like the American people are waiting on Biden and those who work for him to do something. After having a president who knew how to make a decision, it is difficult to live in a country with someone in charge who makes promises that fall by the wayside.
Monica Crowley, who served under President Trump, has been very outspoken about her criticism of Biden. And those criticisms are very valid. So far, he has yet to fulfill his campaign promises and the twenty-dollar bill is just the latest in a long line of issues that have arisen during the last 4 four months. It was already disappointing that Biden was elected president but the fact that he doesn’t follow through has made this so much worse. The next four years are going to be very interesting.