Voters Overwhelmingly Support President Biden’s “Buy American” Executive Order
By Lew Blank
In late July, President Biden released a key executive order to revitalize American manufacturing — a set of changes that the White House says will serve as the most substantial shift in the implementation of the Buy American Act in nearly 70 years. The order will leverage the federal government’s immense purchasing power to provide much-needed support for made-in-America products and strengthen critical supply chains — helping to boost our industrial output, create good-paying jobs, and shore up supply chain blockages that are constraining our economy.
In a poll conducted in late July and early August, we tested support for three of the main provisions of Biden’s executive order. We find that each of these provisions is supported by an overwhelming majority of voters, including majorities of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans.
First, we asked about Biden’s order to increase the percentage of a product’s component parts that must be American-made for the federal government to purchase it. Under the current “Buy American” rule, the government can use taxpayer dollars to purchase a product so long as 55 percent of the value of its parts is manufactured domestically — a loophole that allows companies to bill their products as “made in America” despite being barely more than half American-made. Biden’s order will increase this threshold to 60 percent immediately, and gradually increase it to 75 percent.
We find that this change is supported by a +54-point margin of voters, including a +63-point margin of Democrats, a +70-point margin of Independents, and a +34-point margin of Republicans.
We also tested voter support for requiring companies to be more transparent in reporting the origins of the component parts they use in their products. Currently, federal contractors only tell the government whether or not they meet its 55 percent threshold, and aren’t required to disclose the total amount of American-made parts in their products.
Our polling finds that by a +61-point margin, voters support requiring companies to disclose the total amount of parts in their products that are made in America. Again, support extends across party lines — Democrats support this by a +74-point margin, Independents support it by a +61-point margin, and Republicans support it by a +45-point margin.
Finally, we asked respondents about the order’s provision to strengthen supply chains for products that are critical to our economy but have been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, such as semiconductors, large-capacity batteries, critical minerals, and pharmaceuticals. We find that by a +58-point margin, voters overwhelmingly support federal action to expand and develop these supply chains. This includes a +76-point margin of Democrats, a +56-point margin of Independents, and a +36-point margin of Republicans.
These results make clear that Biden’s “Buy American” executive order has the full support of American voters. Using the federal government’s $600 billion buying power to strengthen American manufacturing is something that voters of all partisan identities can get behind, and the White House and Congress should feel highly comfortable taking further steps to support American-made products.
Lew Blank (@LewBlank) is a senior writer at Data for Progress.
Survey Methodology
From July 30 to August 2, 2021, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,254 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.