ATLANTA (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday traveled to Atlanta to call for passage of the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, saying it would help reverse wage and racial inequalities and start to mitigate climate change.
Yellen, in excerpts of remarks to be delivered at the city of Atlanta’s economic development authority, called the bill, now under debate in the U.S. Senate, the largest infrastructure investment since the construction of the interstate highway system began in the 1950s under the Eisenhower administration.
“Funding for transit and road projects that will connect more people to communities that are growing – and bring growth to the communities that aren’t,” she said.
Investments in a half a million electric vehicle charging stations will accelerate a transition to a greener, more resilient economy, she said.
But Yellen added that Congress needs to push ahead with other investments in President Joe Biden’s “American Families Plan,” including increased access to education and child care, a permanently expanded child tax credit, more affordable housing and healthcare improvements.
Democrats plan to pursue these as part of a $3.5 trillion spending package under budget reconciliation rules requiring only a simple majority in the Senate – allowing the party to potentially approve it without Republican support.
Yellen called such investments “just good economic policy,” adding: “My largest concern is not: What are the risks if we make these big investments? It is: What is the cost if we don’t?”
Such investments will help the United States remain the world’s preeminent economic power, she said.
“We have a chance now to repair the broken foundations of our economy, and on top of it, to build something fairer and stronger than what came before.”
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
