Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will warn on Wednesday that adopting President Joe Biden’s economic program is essential to maintaining America’s status as the world’s leading economic superpower, according to a copy of her remarks obtained by CNBC.

Yellen will deliver the speech in Atlanta as part of a White House messaging blitz designed to rally the public behind the two-party trillion-dollar infrastructure bill and even bigger Democrats’ 3-month spending plan. 500 billion dollars. It will be his first inner journey and a reflection of his increasingly visible role as one of the administration’s champions for expansive investments in so-called “human capital”.

“We have become accustomed to America as the world’s preeminent economic power. We are not destined to remain that way, but with these investments I think we will,” Yellen said in his prepared remarks. “We now have a chance to mend the shattered foundations of our economy, and on top of that, to build something more just and stronger than what came before.”

His comments come at a critical time in negotiations with Capitol Hill. The Senate is haggling over the final details of the infrastructure bill, as Democrats attempt to unify their own party around a broader spending agenda. Yellen will urge lawmakers not to lose sight of their ambition, arguing that the country’s economic recovery “did not happen by default.”

Instead, she attributes the rapid rebound from the recession as a direct result of the policy decisions of the Biden administration. Long-term secular issues – declining labor market participation, wage polarization, climate change – are also choices, she said, not inevitable outcomes.

“Fiscal policy can help unwind them. Or their absence can intensify them,” Yellen said.

Biden’s rock-solid defense of the program marks another turning point in Yellen’s long career. Although she served for two years as President Bill Clinton’s chief economist in the late 1990s, most of her time in Washington was spent carefully avoiding politics while in the Reserves. federal government – first as vice-president, then as president. Since becoming Secretary of the Treasury, she has regularly briefed Democratic lawmakers and even fought with Republicans.

“She has been a leader on some topics (like international taxation) and a key team member on others (like tax packages),” said Jason Furman, chief economist for the Obama administration, in an email. “These may not be the problems she faced at the Fed, but her long career in research and politics has gone through a wide range of issues.”

One of Yellen’s greatest achievements has been to gain global consensus for a minimum corporate tax and to persuade other countries to stop targeting US tech giants. But getting lawmakers here at home to participate in the deal could be an even more difficult challenge.

“She got 132 countries to agree to this thing, and it’s something that has been spreading for years,” said David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center for Fiscal and Monetary Policy. “Now we see if she can get it through Congress.”

Yellen has said she hopes part of the international tax plan will be included in the $ 3.5 trillion package Democrats intend to push through without Republican backing, using the budget reconciliation process. His speech on Wednesday also highlights other priorities in this package: the child tax credit, affordable housing, accessible child care and lowering prescription drug prices. She is one of five cabinet members Biden solicits to help sell these proposals – to her own party and to the public.

“My biggest concern is not: what are the risks if we make these big investments? she said in her prepared remarks. “It’s: what’s the cost if we don’t?” “