U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will deliver what is being characterized as a "major" speech on President Joe Biden's economic agenda at Ford Motor Co.'s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn on Thursday.

Yellen, a former chairwoman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, plans to tour the facility, where Ford makes the all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup, before delivering a speech at 2 p.m. Thursday that will touch on the Biden administration's plans to expand the economy, increasing investment in new technologies and addressing climate change.

The Treasury Department said Tuesday that Yellen's visit kicks off a monthlong effort by the secretary to explain the significance of Biden's plans and their presumed impact on the economy in the months and years to come.

In a statement, Ford said it was "looking forward to hosting Treasury Secretary Yellen at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn for an up-close look at the state-of-the-art facility where Ford is leading the EV revolution and assembling America’s best-selling electric truck, the F-150 Lightning." The automaker's electric vehicle sales are up fourfold in August over the same month last year.

Biden toured the facility himself in May 2021 just ahead of the launch of the F-150 Lightning, tearing around a test track in the vehicle.

In Dearborn, Yellen is expected to defend the $1.9-trillion COVID-19 relief bill passed in early 2021 -- criticized by some as fueling inflation -- as having supported a historically fast recovery from the pandemic slowdowns. She is also expected to talk about three other Biden administration achievements, including an infrastructure bill passed late last year, legislation that will pump billions into semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. and a big climate change and medical bill passed this summer.

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All could help Michigan's auto industry as it transitions to bringing dozens of new electric vehicle models on the market.

The Treasury Department said Yellen plans to discuss how, despite large increases in inflation in recent months, the administration's plans are helping to build what she considers a more resilient economy, replacing a traditional supply-side economic agenda of combining aggressive deregulation and tax cuts with targeted and sustainable investment in the labor supply, infrastructure and research and development.

Contact Todd Spangler attspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Yellen to speak at Ford's Dearborn plant Thursday