Voters Support Passing the American Families and Jobs Plan Through Reconciliation — and Blame Republicans for Lack of Bipartisanship

By Morgan Sperry and Ethan Winter

As part of a survey conducted in June 2021, Invest in America and Data for Progress polled national likely voters’ attitudes toward negotiations between President Biden and Republicans in Congress over the American Jobs Plan, and gridlock in Washington, D.C. overall. 

We find that a majority of voters — including a plurality of Independents — support passing the American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan together using reconciliation. Furthemore, a majority of voters approve of President Biden’s handling of negotiations around the American Jobs Plan. Additionally, we find that likely voters blame Republicans for the failure to reach a bipartisan agreement on new investments in infrastructure, and blame the Republican Party for the general lack of bipartisanship in Washington, D.C.

Voters want to pass the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan together using reconciliation.

First, we provided likely voters with descriptions of the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan, as well as the reconciliation process by which these bills could be passed with a simple majority. We find that, by a 22-percentage-point margin, a majority of likely voters support passing the American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan together through reconciliation. This includes eight-in-ten likely voters who self-identify as Democrats, as well as a plurality of self-identified Independents, who support passing these bills through reconciliation by a 12-point margin. Data for Progress and Invest in America also find that close to a third of self-identified Republican likely voters support passing the American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan together using reconciliation, while six in ten disapprove.

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Voters blame Senate Republicans for failing to reach bipartisan consensus on an infrastructure bill.

We then asked likely voters who they blame for the failure to reach a bipartisan agreement on new infrastructure investments: President Biden or Senate Republicans. We find that by a 10-point margin, likely voters blame Senate Republicans for the lack of a bipartisan deal. This includes an overwhelming majority of Democrats and a clear plurality of Independents, who blame Senate Republicans by margins of 66-points and 15-points, respectively. Republicans, meanwhile, blame President Biden by a margin of 58-points.

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Voters blame Republicans in Congress for the lack of bipartisanship in Washington, D.C.

Finally, Data for Progress and Invest in America provided respondents with a recent quote from Mitch McConnell, in which he asserted that “it’s clear the era of bipartisanship is over.” We then asked likely voters who they blame for the lack of bipartisanship in Washington overall: President Biden or Republicans in Congress. We find that by an 8-point margin, likely voters blame Republicans in Congress over President Biden for the current gridlock. Democrats and Independents assign blame to Republicans in Congress, rather than President Biden, by margins of 69-points and 10-points, respectively. Republicans, meanwhile, blame President Biden by a 64-point margin.

Toplines for this polling can be found here.

Methodology

From June 11 to 15, 2021, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,175 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 ±3 percentage points.

Morgan Sperry (@MorganRSperry) is an analyst at Data for Progress. 

Ethan Winter (@EthanBWinter) is a senior analyst at Data for Progress. You can email him at ethan@dataforprogress.org.