Democratic Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty derailed a Wednesday hearing for over two minutes after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told her his staff would follow up on her query about the “status” of putting abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.
Former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced in 2016 that Tubman would replace President Andrew Jackson on the $20 note. Beatty’s time expired shortly after her question about Tubman during the House Financial Services Committee hearing, but she refused to let the chairman proceed.
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“Can you tell me what’s the current status of this project?” Beatty asked.
“No ma’am, I can’t, but my staff will get back to you,” Bessent replied.
However, Beatty did not accept the Treasury secretary’s response.
“No, I want you to get back to me because, see, there seems to be an issue when it comes to things that affect people of color or people who live in poverty, whether it is what you’re doing with social security, what you are doing with restricting funds—” she said as the chairman’s gavel could be heard repeatedly rapping, with chairman Republican Wisconsin Rep. Bryan Steil eventually telling her that her time had expired.
Beatty continued to disrupt proceedings as Steil repeatedly told her to yield.
“I’m not going to yield,” she said. “I’m not going to stop until you direct him to answer to me as a member of Congress … I will not stop. I will not be silent until you direct him to—”
Steil asked Beatty if she had “a parliament inquiry,” with the congresswoman saying she did.
“As a member of the United States Congress addressing the secretary, I am asking you to rule on asking this hostile witness to direct his response to me versus having him tell me that his staff will respond to me,” she said. “My staff person didn’t ask him the question. I did.”
Steil said that did not qualify as “a parliament inquiry.”
However, Beatty continued to interrupt proceedings, suggesting she had a “point of privilege,” again saying she would not yield. Steil informed her she did not have a valid “point of privilege” and told her to cease while rapping his gavel, which she eventually did.
President Donald Trump has previously suggested that he opposed efforts to put Tubman on the $20 bill in place of Jackson. “Andrew Jackson had a great history. I think it’s very rough when you take somebody off the bill,” Trump said in April 2016, according to the New York Post.
“I think Harriet Tubman is fantastic. I would love to leave Andrew Jackson and see if we can come up with another denomination,” he added, according to the Post. “Maybe we do the $2 bill or another bill. I don’t like seeing it.”
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