By David Lawder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is set to resume her campaign-style promotion of President Joe Biden’s economic initiatives on Friday, visiting a Virginia business incubator to tout U.S. investments in research, semi-conductors, clean energy and other technologies.
The Treasury said Yellen will deliver remarks and meet with entrepreneurs at the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp (VIPC) in Herndon, Virginia, a booming Washington suburb near Dulles International Airport.
Yellen has made a series of other campaign-style speeches in the run-up to the Nov. 8 congressional elections, touting legislation passed over the past year, including a $1.2 trillion infrastructure investment package, the Chips and Science act, which offers subsidies to semiconductor production and research, and the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which includes major tax incentives for clean energy investments.
Last month, Yellen made similar speeches to tout infrastructure and electric vehicle investments in Detroit and visited a solar power developer in North Carolina. Her remarks in Herndon will focus on the technology, research and innovation, which the Treasury said “are creating good-paying jobs, boosting U.S. competitiveness and accelerating the transition to clean energy” and spreading economic benefits to previously overlooked cities.
Yellen will be joined by Senator Tim Kaine and Representative Gerry Connolly, both fellow Democrats, and will host a roundtable with local entrepreneurs and academics focused on semiconductors, advanced manufacturing and other technologies, the Treasury said.
VIPC is the Commonwealth of Virginia’s nonprofit, publicly funded commercialization and seed-stage economic development group, which leads funding, infrastructure, and policy initiatives to support entrepreneurs and startup firms.
Among recent its projects is a partnership with Leesburg, Virginia-based Quantum Computing Inc to develop optimal flight trajectories for drone aircraft and an investment Richmond-based Evizia, a life-sciences startup building a tool to help researchers visualize the human genome.
VIPC’s Herndon facility is located in the Dulles technology corridor, which was once best-known as the home of dial-up internet pioneer America Online, employing thousands of workers before AOL’s fortunes faded in the early 2000s.
The area is now known for a diverse mix of software, defense and other technology firms, including cloud computing software firm Appian Corp and cybersecurity firm Mandiant Inc. The Washington Metro transit system is set to soon open a nearby stop on its Dulles line called Innovation Center.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
