By Kanishka Singh and Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated she by no means urged for the adoption of a smaller COVID-19 reduction package deal, rebutting a media report wherein a biographer was quoted as claiming that she requested officers to reduce the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan by a 3rd.

“I by no means urged adoption of a smaller American Rescue Plan package deal, and I imagine that ARP performed a central function in driving robust development all through 2021 and afterwards,” Yellen stated in a press release on Saturday.

Bloomberg on Friday quoted an advance copy of a biography on Yellen, written by journalist Owen Ullmann, who stated that she was anxious that “an excessive amount of authorities cash was flowing into the financial system too rapidly.” The e-book is due out on Sept. 27.

Yellen’s concern about inflation “is why she had sought with out success to reduce the $1.9 trillion reduction plan by a 3rd early in 2021 earlier than Congress handed the large program,” Ullmann wrote, in line with the copy cited by Bloomberg.

The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan was a pandemic reduction package deal, handed by Democratic majorities in Congress and signed into regulation a yr in the past. It was a signature achievement of U.S. President Joe Biden’s first yr in workplace.

In her assertion on Saturday, Yellen added that top inflation was now the Biden administration’s “prime financial precedence.” She stated earlier this week that she was improper previously in regards to the path inflation would take.

“We’re dedicated to addressing it (inflation) by respecting the independence of the Federal Reserve and giving them the area to behave. We’re additionally utilizing coverage instruments we’ve got to deal with provide facet bottlenecks and urging Congress to behave to decrease a few of the excessive prices going through People, in areas corresponding to pharmaceuticals,” Yellen stated on Saturday.