Iowa Attorney General Takes Action on First Day in Office

DES MOINES, IA – Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird took immediate action today on her first day in office by joining lawsuits, making moves to hire new prosecutors, and launching a full audit of victim services. These actions have been taken ahead of her official swearing in tomorrow (Thursday).

Attorney General Bird signed onto several lawsuits pushing back against what she calls overreach by the Biden administration. These include the lawsuit challenging the Biden Administration’s mass cancellation of federal student loan debt, three challenges to vaccine mandates across the nation, and the challenges to the tax cut ban in the American Rescue Plan Act.

At the request of Governor Kim Reynolds, the State was already a party to these suits, but her former Attorney General Tom Miller refused to represent the State in nearly all the cases.

Attorney General Bird and her legal team also appeared to represent Governor Reynolds and the State in their appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court seeking to dissolve the injunction of the Fetal Heartbeat Bill. Miller also refused to defend the statute or participate in the State’s effort to dissolve the injunction after the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision in June that the Iowa Constitution does not contain a fundamental right to an abortion.

Attorney General Bird is also instituting a top down and bottom up audit of the victim services section of the office. Over the coming weeks, she will be meeting with victims, advocates, prosecutors, law enforcement, and other stakeholders to inform the effort.

Brenna Bird will be formally sworn-in as Iowa Attorney General tomorrow in the rotunda of the Iowa State Capitol.