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Welcome back to the Data for Progress newsletter, your weekly update on our research, blog posts, and memos.
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Our VP of policy Julian Brave NoiseCat is a dedicated leader in advancing equitable and ambitious solutions to the climate crisis — and on Wednesday, he got the recognition he deserves: he was named to TIME’s 100 Next list!!
“Julian Brave NoiseCat stands where the currents of climate journalism, advocacy and policy meet,” wrote environmentalist and founder of 350.org Bill McKibben. “His writing on the environment crackles with reported stories and historical context. But his work at the think tank Data for Progress is heavy on numbers, the kind that inform the Administration’s emerging plans for trillions in green infrastructure spending.”
Here are some other highlights from DFP over the past two weeks:
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In a recent survey experiment, we randomly split respondents into two groups — one was asked whether they support $10,000 in student debt cancelation, and the other was asked for whether they support $50,000 in student debt cancelation. We find that the difference in support for these varying levels of cancelation is within the margin of error, meaning there’s no evidence that a smaller cancelation would be more politically popular.
A $50,000 cancelation has a 17-point margin of support, compared with a 14-point margin for $10,000 in cancelation.
On student debt cancelation, the Biden administration should go big.
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Right now, Amazon employees in Bessemer, Alabama are attempting to become the first of the company's U.S. employees to unionize. If a majority vote “yes,” it could improve working conditions at the warehouse and spark a chain reaction of unionization for Amazon employees across the country.
In new polling, we show that not only do Democratic voters support Amazon employees’ efforts to unionize, but Independents and Republicans do as well — by substantial margins of 72-points, 49-points, and 24-points, respectively.
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There’s a lot that Secretary of Interior-designate Deb Haaland can do when confirmed, and in a new blog post, Julian Brave NoiseCat and Danielle Deiseroth break down six of the most popular policies Haaland can pursue, including:
—> An executive order to conserve and protect 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030 (+51 net support)
—> Strengthening methane emission standards on public lands (+36 net support)
—> Taking steps to return stolen lands to Tribal Nations (+38 net support)
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Will voters sacrifice larger stimulus checks in order to strike a bipartisan deal with the GOP? We find no evidence that they do. In a new analysis with researchers from Tufts University, we find that while bipartisanship does increase support for stimulus, there’s no evidence that reducing the size of checks to attract GOP support would increase popularity.
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In a comprehensive memo earlier this month, we laid out a bipartisan platform to address the opioid epidemic, including making naloxone as widely available as possible, covering medically assisted treatment under Medicaid, and creating “health hubs.” One finding: 67 percent of Americans support distributing naloxone to community groups, which can then deliver it directly to those using drugs.
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