Six Popular Policies Rep. Deb Haaland Can Enact as Secretary of the Interior
By Julian Brave NoiseCat and Danielle Deiseroth
In December, President Joe Biden nominated Representative Deb Haaland (D-NM) to be the next Secretary of the Interior. If confirmed, Secretary-designate Haaland would be the first Native American cabinet secretary in United States history. In addition to her historic career, Haaland has an impressive legislative track record. While in Congress, Haaland introduced more bills with bicameral support than any other member of the House and outpaced her fellow House freshmen in the number of bills she led, co-sponsored, and whipped influential and bipartisan votes to support. She also has a strong record working across the aisle, and has already seen four of her bills signed into law—an impressive feat in our polarized era. Haaland is a pathbreaker, unifier and savvy policy-maker who, as the Secretary of the Interior, will play a crucial role enacting Biden’s “whole-of-government” approach to the climate crisis.
Despite her compelling record—which led Republican representatives like Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) and Don Young (R-Alaska) to support her when she was being considered for nomination—some congressional Republicans including Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), and Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) have recently attacked Haaland, caricaturing her as a “radical.” Sen. Daines, for example, accused Haaland of supporting “radical issues that will hurt...our way of life, our jobs and rural America.” But what do voters actually think of the issues Haaland and the Interior Department will champion under the Biden administration?
As part of a recent national survey, Data for Progress asked voters whether they support or oppose several of President Biden’s policies that will be implemented by Haaland and the Department of the Interior. We found that contrary to the opinions of Daines, Barrasso, and Stauber, these policies are all quite popular with voters across the political spectrum.
All of the policies that Data for Progress tested enjoy net support among all voters, and all except two of the policies have net support among Republicans. In addition, every policy we surveyed enjoys net support among Democrats and independents.
The most popular policies are an executive order to conserve and protect 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030 and actions to increase protections for endangered plants and animals, both of which have net support of +51 percentage points—69 percent support, 18 percent oppose (Last Congress, Haaland also introduced a resolution to conserve 30% of lands and waters by 2030). Other policies that enjoy high levels of support include promoting clean and renewable energy production on federal lands and waters (67 percent support), strengthening methane emission standards on public lands (61 percent support), and taking steps to return stolen lands to Tribal Nations (59 percent support). While Biden’s executive order to pause new leasing for fossil fuel projects on federal lands and waters—the subject of ire for many of Rep. Haaland’s critics—is the least popular among all of the proposals Data for Progress tested, it still enjoys net support of +14 percentage points (48 percent support, 34 percent oppose).
Unsurprisingly, all of these Interior Department policy proposals are especially popular among Democratic voters. There is near-unanimous support among Democrats for promoting clean and renewable energy production on federal lands and waters (80 percent support), increasing protections for endangered plants and animals (81 percent support), conserving and protecting 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030 (80 percent support), and tightening methane emissions standards on public lands (79 percent support). A majority of Democrats also support taking steps to returning stolen lands to Tribal Nations (72 percent support) and pausing new fossil fuel leasing on federal lands and waters (69 percent support).’
Independents also overwhelmingly support these policies. Like Democrats, nearly two-thirds of independents want to promote clean and renewable energy production on federal lands and waters (68 percent support), conserve and protect 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030 (66 percent support), and increase protections for protecting endangered plants and animals (64 percent support). A majority of independents also support tightening methane emissions standards on public lands (57 percent support) and taking steps to return stolen lands to Tribal Nations (57 percent support), while a plurality support pausing new leasing for fossil fuel projects on federal lands and waters (46 percent support).
Even Republicans are on board with most of these proposals. A majority of Republicans support increasing protections for endangered plants and animals (58 percent support) and conserving and protecting 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030 (57 percent support), while a plurality support promoting clean and renewable energy production on public lands and waters (48 percent support) and taking steps to return stolen lands to Tribal Nations (44 percent support). The only policies Data for Progress tested that do not enjoy net support from Republicans are strengthening methane emissions standards and pausing fossil fuel leasing on federal lands and waters.
Trump’s Interior Secretaries, Ryan Zinke and David Bernhardt, were fossil fuel executives and lobbyists who opened federal lands to oil and gas corporations at pennies on the dollar and worked to undermine myriad environmental laws. While some congressional Republicans may think the Biden, Harris, and Haaland agenda will hurt America, voters clearly disagree. Secretary-designate Haaland’s nomination is historic and under her leadership the Department of the Interior will implement a number of popular policies that will make these United States—and the 574 federally recognized Tribal Nations across the nation—more sustainable, equitable, and prosperous.
Julian Brave NoiseCat (@jnoisecat) is the Vice President of Policy & Strategy at Data for Progress.
Danielle Deiseroth (@danielledeis) is the Senior Climate Data Analyst at Data for Progress.
Survey Methodology
From January 29 to February 1, 2021, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,128 likely voters nationally using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ±2.9 percentage points.