{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.merkley.senate.gov/merkley-cortez-masto-lead-new-bill-to-block-donald-trump-from-putting-his-face-on-dollar-coin/", "Merkley, Cortez Masto Lead New Bill to Block Donald Trump from Putting His Face on Dollar Coin", "2025-12-09", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "OR", "Jeff Merkley", "M001176", "www.merkley.senate.gov", "merkley", "https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, Oregon\u2019s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and Nevada\u2019s U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto introduced new legislation to prevent any living or sitting U.S. President from being featured on any U.S. currency.\n\nThe Change Corruption Act would ensure President Trump cannot be featured on an upcoming one-dollar coin in celebration of the Semiquincentennial, America\u2019s 250th birthday. Public reporting and draft designs suggest the U.S. Mint is considering a dollar coin featuring Trump, despite the historical precedent of America not featuring a living or sitting President on a circulating coin. A final decision on the design could come as soon as this week.\n\n\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s self-celebrating maneuvers are authoritarian actions worthy of dictators like North Korea\u2019s Kim Jong Un, not the United States of America,\u201d said Merkley. \u201cWe must reject his efforts to dismantle our \u2018We, The People\u2019 republic and replace it with a strongman state by demanding strong accountability to prevent further abuse of taxpayer dollars. As we look ahead to America\u2019s 250th birthday, I\u2019ll keep fighting back against Trump\u2019s corruption and partisan propaganda.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhile monarchs put their faces on coins, America has never had and never will have a king,\u201d said Cortez Masto. \u201cOur legislation would codify this country\u2019s long-standing tradition of not putting living Presidents on American coins. Congress must pass it without delay.\u201d\n\nThe Change Corruption Act is also co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).\n\n\u201cDonald Trump will stop at nothing to steal the spotlight, and that includes putting an image of himself on a U.S. coin,\u201d said Wyden. \u201cWhile kings insist on immortalizing their image on shiny objects, real leaders care about focusing on the issues of today. I\u2019m proud to support this bill that ensures our country does not worship its leaders like kings.\u201d\n\n\u201cPresident Trump seeks to disobey the law and betray our American values by having his portrait minted on U.S. currency,\u201d said Blumenthal. \u201cA long-standing tradition and rejection of monarchy, our nation has never allowed the image of a living or sitting president to be used on circulating currency. Our Change Corruption Act reaffirms this tradition and prohibits currency from being used to honor or promote the current President of the United States.\u201d\n\nPreviously, Merkley and Cortez Masto led seven Senate Democrats\u2014including Wyden\u2014in a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent calling on him to reject the proposed designs for the Semiquincentennial dollar coin featuring the likeness of President Trump.\n\nMerkley has been a long-time leader in the push to end public corruption, including leading a bipartisan bill that would prevent lawmakers from trading stocks and legislation to crack down on cryptocurrency-related corruption by elected officials at the highest levels of the federal government. He has also championed efforts to crack down on dark money in politics.\n\nFull text of the Change Corruption Act can be found by clicking here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.merkley.senate.gov/merkley-cortez-masto-lead-new-bill-to-block-donald-trump-from-putting-his-face-on-dollar-coin/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4749150723218918, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}