Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is asking legislators for a more than $1.6 million budget boost so she can hire seven more attorneys.
She outlined her budget proposal Monday for an Iowa House Appropriations Subcommittee. Bird is asking for over $300,000 to fund one prosecutor to investigate financial crimes, and another $825,000 to add four more full-time attorneys in her office.
Nearly $500,000 in Bird’s request would go to hiring two attorneys and a paralegal to primarily deal with high-profile lawsuits seeking to overturn state laws.
“That part of our office has been kept very, very busy with a number of lawsuits and other cases against state laws.”
If the Legislature approves this part of Bird’s budget request, she says she would have these three staffers help with consumer protection cases that her office handles.