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The Treasury Department will conduct an investigation into the circumstances leading to a delay in the production of a new $20 bill featuring a portrait of slave-turned-slave-emancipator Harriet Tubman. 

 to Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., released Monday, acting Inspector General Rich Delmar explained the inquiry will be folded into a larger examination of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's project management processes for new note design that was already in the works. 


"As part of this work, we will interview the stakeholders involved in the new note design process," Delmar wrote. 


In 2016, the Treasury Department announced it would 

replace former President Andrew Jackson's face

 with that of the famed abolitionist by 2020. As NPR 

, the update would have made Tubman the first woman since Martha Washington to appear on an American currency note and the first African American. But last month, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the redesign will be 

the department to launch an investigation last week, specifically asking for a review of "the involvement of other participants in the interagency process related to the redesign — including the Secret Service, Federal Reserve, and the White House — to ensure that political considerations have not been allowed to infect the process for designing American currency."


Delmar noted the review will seek interviews with officials, including senior executives from Treasury, BEP, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), United States Secret Service and the Board's Currency Technology Office.

He added it will take approximately 10 months.

"If, in the course of our audit work, we discover indications of the employee misconduct or other matters that warrant a referral to our Office of Investigations, we will do so expeditiously," Delmar said. 

Before he was elected, President Trump was critical of a redesign that would eliminate Jackson's image, saying the move was motivated by "pure political correctness." 


Jackson "represented somebody that really was very important to this country," Trump said in a 

Business and Economic News

Politics and Government News

Vanessa Romo

Author

Prompted by a request by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the department's acting inspector general said he will look into what led to a postponement of the abolitionist's appearance on the note.

Treasury Department launches investigation into delays behind Harriet Tubman $20 bill

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