Brenna Bird brings focus on crime, victims as Iowa attorney general term begins

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is looking to make good on the promises she made on the campaign trail, coming into the office as Iowa’s first Republican attorney general since 1979.

In an interview Tuesday, Bird said she wants to put a focus on crime and victim advocacy. She ran her campaign promising to stand by law enforcement and “back the blue.” How that looks in practice is putting a focus on the areas of the office that deal with crime, victim services and prosecution.

She took over as attorney general Jan. 3 from Democrat Tom Miller, who held the office for a combined 40 years between 1979 and 2023, taking off one term after an unsuccessful run for governor.

Bird announced last week she was performing a “top down and bottom up” audit of the office’s Victim Services division. In that audit, Bird said she wants to find out the kind of accommodations made to victims of crimes and the services the office could be providing.

In Bird’s experience as a prosecutor, she said victims had expressed a need for counseling, a place to live or help replacing property that was destroyed. The audit process will involve holding listening sessions around the state, speaking with advocates, prosecutors and law enforcement about how the office can better serve victims.

Bird was most recently the county attorney for Guthrie County, and she also has been the county attorney in Fremont and Audubon counties. Before assuming public office, she worked as counsel and chief of staff to former Republican U.S. Rep. Steve King, and was former Republican Gov. Terry Branstad’s chief counsel from 2011 to 2015.

“I want to sit down and talk directly with the people who were affected and providing the services to see how we can do better,” she said.

In addition to hiring two new prosecutors, Bird said she plans to build a cold case unit and a special victims unit. The special victims unit would deal with cases involving especially vulnerable people, including the disabled, the elderly and children. She said the office would work on training prosecutors and law enforcement to deal with those crimes.

“Some of those cases that I was able to work on as a prosecutor were some of the toughest I worked on, but they were very rewarding,” she said. “Because I know that when a child molester goes to prison, it means that we are preventing future children from being victimized by that person.”

Proposing legislation

Bird has proposed legislation that would increase the penalty for selling most controlled substances when the substance causes a death or serious injury.

With no specific statute covering sale of drugs that leads to death, prosecutors can usually get a Class D felony conviction, which carries a sentence of up to 5 years in prison. Bird wants to raise that to Class B, which carries a maximum of 25 years in prison.

Around 25 states have laws making it a specific crime to sell a drug resulting in death to another person. Federal law also carries a 20-year minimum sentence for the sale of a drug resulting in death or serious injury.

“State law does not adequately address that, we need to hold those people accountable,” she said. “ … As a prosecutor, when I would have an opioid death in my county, I would do everything I could to see if the U.S. Attorney’s Office, if the federal government could take that case because they could get justice for the victim, where, at the state level I just don’t think the penalty matches the crime.”

Bird also said she wants to introduce legal changes that would improve conditions for crime victims, pointing to issues prosecutors have brought up to her.

While she didn’t name specifics, she said the proposal would include “some changes that would make the process a little bit better for a crime victim.”

Lawsuits against federal government

On her first day in office, the Republican made good on another promise from her campaign: suing President Joe Biden’s administration. She entered legal battles against the president’s student loan forgiveness program, vaccine mandates and a provision in the American Rescue Plan that blocks states from using federal funds to cut taxes. Bird characterized it as pushing back against federal overreach.

“There will be other lawsuits, new ones, that we will join and file as things develop,” she said. “Whether it’s the federal government going too far and violating the laws and constitution, or something that needs to be done here in the state to enforce the law.”

Bird also began representing the state in a bid before the Iowa Supreme Court from Gov. Kim Reynolds to reinstate the “fetal heartbeat” law, which would ban abortions in the earliest weeks of pregnancy. The law was blocked when a 2019 court found it unconstitutional. Since then, the legal standard for abortion restrictions has changed in the state and the country, and states have much broader authority to regulate abortion.

The Office of the Consumer Advocate, a division of the Attorney General’s Office, represents Iowa consumers in utility issues. The office has been arguing in front of the Iowa Utilities Board for more than a year asking carbon dioxide pipeline projects to have more safety requirements and asking the board to hold off on permitting the pipelines until new federal safety standards are established.

The previous consumer advocate stepped down when Bird assumed office, and she said she’s in the process of appointing a new one. She did not say how the office’s approach to pipeline issues would change.

“What I’m looking for is someone who understands energy here in Iowa, and who understands the needs of consumers,” she said. “That consumers need affordable energy because we’ve all seen our utility bills going up."

In the long term, Bird said she isn’t angling to beat Miller’s 40-year record in the office. While she didn’t say how many terms she hopes to serve, she said she wants to follow through on the campaign promises made during this term.

“At the end of my term, I want to know that Iowa is safer, that I helped crime victims, that we built those relationships with law enforcement,” she said.