The US Treasury faced mounting criticism on Saturday over its decision to halt work on a redesigned $20 bill featuring the abolitionist Harriet Tubman, a project first announced under the Obama administration. Civil rights organisations and Democratic lawmakers demanded the department reverse course.

The Trump administration has shelved the Tubman note, according to Treasury and Bureau of Engraving and Printing officials. The redesign had been slated for release in the coming years after repeated delays under the first Trump term.

The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights condemned the move in statements, describing it as an erasure of an American icon. Representative Maxine Waters, ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, called on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to explain the delay.

Treasury officials have said currency redesigns are driven primarily by anti-counterfeiting requirements rather than by which figures appear on notes. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing had previously indicated that new security features for the $20 note would not be ready for years, complicating the timeline for any portrait change.

The dispute revives a decade-long controversy over US paper currency, which has not featured a woman since Martha Washington appeared on a silver certificate in the late 19th century. Advocacy groups signalled they would continue pressing the administration and congressional allies.