New Iowa AG Bird requests extra money to fight ‘federal overreach’

DES MOINES — Brenna Bird, Iowa’s new Republican attorney general whose primary campaign platform was a pledge to stand up to Democratic President Joe Biden, has asked state lawmakers to approve nearly $1 million to “push back on overreach.”

The request is part of a presentation Bird’s office made recently to lawmakers, who in the coming weeks will craft state spending for the next budget year beginning July 1.

Bird requested an additional $920,514 to fund six full-time equivalent positions — four lawyers and two paralegals whose primary duties would be, according to the office’s presentation, “to protect the state’s interests against federal overreach, protect Iowa farmers, and defend Iowa’s statutes.”

Bird became Iowa Attorney General in January after defeating Democrat Tom Miller, the longest-serving state attorney general in U.S. history, in this past November’s elections. During her campaign, Bird frequently pledged to use the state Attorney General’s Office as a legal firewall between Iowans and the Biden administration.

The most recent example was revealed Thursday, when Bird’s office announced it has joined Republican attorneys general in two dozen other states who are suing the Biden administration over a federal regulation that requires gun owners to register any guns with attached pistol braces.

“Attorney General Bird is requesting funding to hire the legal team needed to prosecute criminals, protect victims, and hold the Biden Administration accountable when it oversteps its authority,” Bird’s press secretary Alyssa Brouillet said in an emailed statement. “She’s committed to doing the job Iowans elected her to do.”

There currently are about 150 attorneys in the Attorney General’s Office, Brouillet said.

Democratic state lawmakers criticized Bird’s budget request, calling it an attempt to use taxpayer-funded positions for politically motivated lawsuits.

“Iowa taxpayers have absolutely no business and should not expect to pay $900,000 for politically motivated lawsuits to help Donald Trump’s campaign to beat Joe Biden,” said Rep. Jennifer Konfrst, from Windsor Heights, leader of the Iowa House Democrats. “That’s what this $900,000 request is: it’s simply an effort to take taxpayer money to help political campaigns, and that’s simply unacceptable.”

Miller had joined multiple lawsuits against Republican former President Donald Trump’s administration until statehouse Republicans intervened in 2019.

Republican state lawmakers that year passed legislation that would have required the attorney general to receive the governor’s permission before joining a multistate lawsuit. Reynolds vetoed the proposal, instead entering into a handshake agreement with Miller that he would seek her permission before entering such lawsuits.

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