Reuters, Washington

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday that the bipartisan infrastructure package approved by Congress and President Joe Biden’s proposed social and climate spending plan would increase US productivity and the size of its labor force.

Yellen said in prepared remarks to a University of Nevada-Las Vegas economic conference that together, the two bills would increase long-term US economic output without increasing the national debt, and their revenue-raising measures would reduce deficits over time.

“I do believe that the passage of these pieces of legislation will lead not only to higher rates of productivity but to positive changes across a wide array of metrics. They will increase the size of our labor force and expand the productive capacity of our economy,” Yellen said.

The “Build Back Better” bill’s investments in child care would allow many American mothers to return to the work force, she said, citing studies showing that from 2018 to 2019 some 2 million parents of young children had to quit a job, forego a job or greatly change their job to deal with child care issues.

Universal pre-school as proposed in the bill will also help parents stay in the workforce and pay dividends in future decades by improving graduation rates and the income-earning prospects of future workers, Yellen said.

She said the tax provisions in the proposal would make the US tax code “substantially more progressive by imposing higher taxes on the wealthy and improving compliance by wealthy taxpayers.

“Our compliance efforts to ensure wealthy people pay what they owe will raise an estimated $400 billion and thats probably a conservative projection,” Yellen said, echoing comments to Reuters by her deputy, Wally Adeyemo.