By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary

Janet Yellen will travel to Stafford County, Virginia on Monday

to tour a broadband infrastructure project funded by the $1.9

trillion COVID-era American Rescue Plan and underscore the

importance of investing in rural areas.

The Treasury Department said Yellen would visit a community

where nearly 700 homes have secured broadband services as a

result of funds from President Joe Biden's legislation and its

Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund (CPF).

Yellen will visit a recently completed Comcast

high-speed internet installation site in Fredericksburg,

and meet with local officials and community members to discuss

Biden's efforts to drive more investment into rural areas that

have often lagged more urban places in investments, Treasury

said.

Biden, a Democrat who is seeking reelection this year, and

his top cabinet members have been crisscrossing the country to

tout the benefits of a trio of more legislation aimed at

boosting domestic manufacturing, improving infrastructure and

lower energy costs.

Biden has struggled to win voter confidence in his handling

of the economy amid persistently high inflation, although Yellen

has repeatedly said she expects Americans to start feeling

better about the economy as inflation continues to slow and

wages grow.

Financial markets are bracing for fresh U.S. inflation data

this week with the producer price index (PPI) to be released on

Tuesday and the consumer price index (CPI) on Wednesday.

Comcast spokesperson Kristofer Schneider said the company

had invested nearly $900 million in technology and

infrastructure in Virginia over the past three years to provide

broadband service to tens of thousands of people in the state.

It has invested $20 billion nationally to quadruple its

overall network capacity and provide multi-gigabit service to 15

million homes and businesses, Schneider said.

The company said the rural expansion in Stafford County,

located about 70 miles south of Washington, was announced in

September 2022 as part of a public-private partnership funded in

part through the Commonwealth of Virginia's Telecommunications

Initiative (VATI) and the ARP.