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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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The American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, was signed into law by President Biden yesterday. This historically far-reaching relief package provides $1400 stimulus checks, $300 in weekly unemployment benefits, expanded Child Tax Credits, hundreds of billions in aid to state and local governments, and $128 billion to schools and educational agencies. It will also provide billions of dollars for low-income seniors, emergency rental assistance, and the tracking and administration of COVID-19 vaccines.
As our polling with Invest for America shows, the American Rescue Plan is overwhelmingly popular with voters: 69% of voters support it, including 84% of Democrats, 65% of Independents, and 54% of Republicans. That’s right: a majority of Republicans support this relief package, even though not a single Republican in Congress voted for it. Although this bill lacks bipartisan support in Congress, we feel confident that seeing children in schools, businesses open and prospering, and money in their pockets will make the American public proud.
Here are some other highlights from DFP over the past week:
- In new polling from DFP: a majority of voters (57%) want Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign in the wake of multiple allegations that he committed sexual misconduct against subordinates.
- There’s been a lot of talk about Puerto Rican Statehood among Democrats, but what do Puerto Ricans actually want? Our latest memo, spearheaded by Principal Gustavo Sanchez, does a deep dive into this question and asks Puerto Rican voters to rank a number of different options for Puerto Rican status.
- Vox shared our polling showing that, despite Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s opposition to ending the filibuster, Arizona voters strongly prefer approving key bills to keeping the rule intact. Salon also covered this finding.
- With the rise of Big Tech, antitrust policy has returned to the forefront of American politics. In a new DFP blog piece, DFP executive director Sean McElwee breaks down why Biden should stock his administration with strong proponents of antitrust enforcement and reduce Big Tech executives’ influence over policy-making.
- In new Maryland state polling, we found that voters support abolishing the state’s practice of life sentencing without parole for children who commit crimes by a 13-point margin. Our polling also shows that an overwhelming majority of Maryland voters — 85% — support requiring law enforcement to contact a parent, guardian, or attorney before interrogating children.
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