Meghan Stoppel:

Welcome to the second season of State AG Pulse. In this season, we will be releasing a new podcast episode every two weeks. In addition to providing a deep dive into those headlines that showcase the enormous power and broad authority of state attorneys general, we’ll be talking with new AGs about their transition into office and their priorities. Like last season, we’ll leverage our decades of experience to provide our listeners with insight and perspective to help business leaders better understand and successfully work with state AGs. Listen for new voices as co-chairs Bernie Nash and Lori Kalani share the host mic with other members of Cozen O’Connor State AG Group. So now let’s jump right in to this week’s episode.

Jerry Kilgore:

Welcome to the Cozen state attorney general podcast. I’m Jerry Kilgore, a partner here at Cozen O’Connor, and I’m joined today by Megan Stoppel, who comes to us from being consumer protection chief in Nebraska. So we’re glad that she’s on this call with us, but we are so excited to have a very special guest with us today, Brenna Bird from Iowa. General Bird, we are excited that you are with us.

AG Bird:

Oh, thank you. It’s good to be with you.

Jerry Kilgore:

I know a lot of exciting things have gone on in Iowa since you first took office, but you come to the job with a great background of being a prosecutor. You also worked in the governor’s office, in the counsel’s office there and worked in the House of Representatives in Congress. So you’ve had a great career in government service, and our listeners would just love to know what made you decide that you wanted to become attorney general?

AG Bird:

Well, I think it came in part from my work as a prosecutor. Like many other prosecutors, I really care about doing justice and helping crime victims. And I realized that as attorney general, I could do that at the statewide level and help other, we call them county attorneys in Iowa, that’s like a DA, to help other county attorneys achieve their goals too. And then another big part of it was everything that was going on in Washington with the Biden administration and some of the problems that Iowans have had there with the EPA and other types of big government overreach, and there’s a real need to push back against that. So those were two of my big motivators to do the job.

Jerry Kilgore:

I’m sure you’re right in the middle of a legislative session or it’s close to coming to an end. What have you noticed about now being attorney general and being on that side of the legislature versus the governor’s side?

AG Bird:

Well, it’s really very different because in the governor’s office, of course, they have their hands full with the state budget and all the different agencies. Here, we get called in when they’re looking for some help from us or perspective. And then also when we’re working on some of our own initiatives. It’s just a very different dynamic being over here versus in the governor’s office. But we’re able to do that by giving legal advice and working with the legislators when they need our help.

Jerry Kilgore:

Well, plus you have to defend all these laws if they’re ever challenged. Right? Every law they’re passing.

AG Bird:

That’s right. So we appreciate it when the legislature asked us for our thoughts on how to address different types of issues. And we try to be just as helpful as we can be. And then the next step, once something becomes law sometimes is defending it in the courts. And that was something that was really important to our legislature, knowing that we would be working hard in court for them to defend their laws that they pass to the fullest.

Meghan Stoppel:

So General Bird, Meghan Stoppel here, thank you so much for taking the time today to have this conversation with us. I think this is going to be really interesting for our listeners, especially on the topic of new Iowa legislation and laws. I know Iowa just passed and has enacted a new privacy bill making Iowa, I think the fifth state now in the country to enact a comprehensive privacy law, set to take effect, I think, in January of 2025. I’m curious, and I’m sure our audience is going to be curious, did your office play a role in seeing that law come off the ground or did your staff play a role in shaping the language of that bill from start to finish, especially given the fact that it looks like your office now has primary enforcement authority for that law?

AG Bird:

Yeah, we do. We do have primary enforcement authority, and the process unfolded like would be fairly typical. It was a legislative effort, but as they had questions or wanted to seek some context to different ways that things might play out, legislators did reach out to our office and we tried to be as helpful as possible. And we are all getting ready in this office for when that law goes into effect in January of 2025 to enforce it. It also has a 90-day period where those with potential issues have a right to cure within that time period. So I think that’s also a helpful provision in the law that some folks might want to know about.

Meghan Stoppel:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that’s a provision that actually I think is really interesting when it comes to this new comprehensive privacy legislation and some of these bills that are floating around out there. Some states have that 90 day cure period and then it’s set to expire or sunset after a year or two into the bill passing. Iowa’s law is written in a way that 90 day cure period doesn’t ever expire. And so I do think that’s going to impact the way that businesses interact with your office, especially the privacy subject matter experts in your office, to help your staff understand what they are doing or maybe what they’re not doing from a privacy perspective. Can you talk to us about the work your team is doing to prepare for that enforcement process? Or any advice you’d give to our listeners about how to interact with your office if they get one of those notices?

AG Bird:

Well, that would be a little bit premature, some of that just because we’re still putting things together there. But I will say this, we are working on building out the team so that we can enforce this law in the way that legislators intended, which is common sense, not a “gotcha” law. But on the other side of it, just making sure that our consumers here in Iowa are 100% fully protected. And so we’re putting that team together and working through that process in much the way that I think many of your companies would be looking at the laws around the United States to figure out how to comply. And what we always encourage within our office is if individuals, consumers, businesses, anybody has a question, don’t hesitate to give us a call or to sit down with us and we can work through that together. It helps us to understand how people are impacted by laws so that we can make sure that we have good enforcement, but also common sense enforcement.

Meghan Stoppel:

Yeah, that’s, I mean, great advice. Jerry, I’m sure you’d agree with me.

Jerry Kilgore:

I do. And it’s the one area of the law where you may be a victim on one day, you may have been hacked by a criminal enterprise, and then the very next moment it appears that you’re a defendant in a lawsuit by state attorneys general. So we certainly from the business perspective, appreciate the 90-day cure period, the ability for businesses to work with your office to maybe go after those that are wrecking havoc on our privacy, on the privacy of consumers in Iowa. Every attorney general that takes office, regardless of whether you change parties or the same party, make changes within their office. What are the operations changes ongoing that you’ve made, or that are ongoing, in the Iowa Attorney General’s office so that you can make sure the initiatives you want pass or are dealt with?

AG Bird:

Yeah. Well, it had been a while since there had been change in this office. So when we first started-

Jerry Kilgore:

Maybe like 32 years, right?

AG Bird:

Yes, a long time. It’s been a while. And so we made some big changes initially to some of the structure to help recalibrate the office and refocus it. And then as we go forward, we’re always looking for ways that we can do things better and work better as a team. So the core functions of the office, they all stay the same, but we make sure that we’re looking at each part of the office and learning from that and just getting the best value we can for the taxpayers of the state of Iowa and doing great legal work.

Jerry Kilgore:

One of the most important areas for both parties over the past few years has been the solicitor general’s post and the ability to use that position to look at not only working in your state, in your circuit, but in targeting the administration or others for activity that may be going on that would not benefit Iowans. How are you structuring that solicitor general’s post, and do they have in-state and out-of-state, if you will, duties?

AG Bird:

Yeah, so the solicitor general takes a look at the legal position that the state is taking in appellate court, and then also monitors any other key pieces of possible litigation that might be out there. For example, laws that might be challenged that have passed the state legislature. So it’s both state and federal, and it covers a broad variety of areas. It also is a post where our solicitor general is looking for ways that we can help agriculture here in Iowa. That is something that is a big focus of our office. And also looking for lawsuits and ways that we can work together with other state AGs to protect Iowans. So whether it’s “Waters of the US” or other types of litigation that are really important to Iowans, we want to be engaging there.

Jerry Kilgore:

You’re already known for suing the Biden administration, is it weekly or every other week? How often is this happening?

AG Bird:

Well, we’ll sue them when necessary, whenever they’re violating our laws and constitution. So I hope we can get that number down to zero, quite frankly. But right now we’ve got our hands full.

Meghan Stoppel:

And General Bird, one of the actually more recent pieces of work that I’m sure your SG was involved in, but maybe others in your office were involved in, is an amicus brief that you signed on to, I think it was being led by your colleague, General Reyes, out in Utah in support of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, and a piece of litigation that he’s involved in involving a dispute over an open records request. Can you talk to our audience a little bit about that amicus brief and why you thought it was so important to throw Iowa’s support behind that amicus brief and the work your office does from an open records perspective?

AG Bird:

Well, I think it’s an institutional responsibility of a state attorney general to help remind the courts of some of the uniqueness that we have within state government, which I think that was what that amicus brief was all about. That just because people might name the head of a government or the head of an agency doesn’t mean that that person has to go to court or attend depositions or whatever the legal process might be, unless that person really has some key information that litigant would need. Otherwise, key posts would just be bogged down all the time. And that’s exactly the opposite of what open records are supposed to be. It’s supposed to be something where there’s transparency to the government, not a big drag on the government and making it difficult for people to do their jobs in the executive branch.

Jerry Kilgore:

The energy issue has been such a divisive one between let’s say the Republican AGs and the Biden administration. Can you talk about where you stand on energy policy?

AG Bird:

Yes. I mean, I think there are so many things and so many ways that state AGs can be active on energy policy. And part of that comes down to keeping the federal government within its role so that legislation can go through Congress, be signed by the president to become law, but where government entities like the EPA or other parts of the federal bureaucracy are not the ones trying to legislate. That’s what it really comes down to. And when the federal government is out of control like it is, it really does hurt Iowa, and it hurts Iowans.

Because you look at something like “Waters of the US” where the EPA through that new regulation would seek to control 97% of the land in Iowa and farmers would have to go to the EPA for permission for how to farm their land. Those kinds of things are not supported by the law, but also have a huge impact on agriculture and our rural communities. And as somebody that was born and raised on a farm and still lives on a gravel road, I see that every day. So that kind of pushback on bad energy policies that aren’t based on law is really important, and I appreciate the chance to work with other AGs on those issues.

Meghan Stoppel:

Yeah, I think that’s a really important point you make there, General Bird, about the unique perspective sometimes that Midwesterners bring to these conversations. As a proud Midwesterner, someone born and raised in the Kansas City area, certainly I’ve had umpteen conversations with my colleagues on both coasts, lovely folks like Jerry Kilgore and others even here at Cozen O’Connor, trying to explain not just the values I think that sometimes folks in the heart of the country bring to the table, but that perspective on limited government and what we want the folks that live outside the Midwest to understand about the way that we see things like consumer protection or environmental protection. I’m curious, General Bird, what is the one thing that now that you’re three, almost I guess, four months into your first term, what’s the one thing that you’ve found yourself repeating over and over again to your colleagues in the attorney general community that you’re getting to know about what it means to be an Iowan and the perspective that you’re bringing to the office?

AG Bird:

Well, I think one thing is just we need to be sure that we are always making it real so that people understand that when we file lawsuits, it’s not just a lawsuit, it’s the people that are hurt by this government overreach that we’re thinking about. And I think we have to do a good job of explaining that to people, because the Iowans that I serve, this is what they’re worried about, and it has a very real impact on what their choices can be, what their business might be, what their community is going to look like.

So these are important issues, and we need to find ways to communicate that outside the legalese and some of the legal arguments and make sure that we’re really talking about what the role of an attorney general is. Because on the opposite side, when I’m out on the road meeting with Iowans, because I do make sure I go to every county every year, I hear questions and many of them think that I’m like a lawmaker, but that’s not what I do. I enforce the law. The legislature makes the law, but as attorneys, we have to do a better job, I think, of explaining what these lawsuits are, what they’re all about, and then at the end of the day, how people are better off because we stand up for their rights.

Meghan Stoppel:

Yeah, I could not agree more. And it was one of the things that as a young staffer in the Kansas office, I found sort of unsettling in those first few years was how many people in my state didn’t know what the AG did, didn’t know that we had a consumer protection division, didn’t know they could file complaints with the office. I’m sure your staff is doing some of that yeoman’s work right now, still educating some of your constituents that you serve in that capacity and it’s work that’s probably still going to be done 10, 15 years from now, right? It’s work that’s never done. But speaking of consumer protection, constituent protection, keeping those harms in mind, there is a culture of bipartisanship in the AG community. Have you found areas where you can collaborate maybe with other AGs that are of a different party or political persuasion or maybe that don’t share some of your same values? Can you speak to us about what you found in these first four months in office that gives you some confidence or heart that there are areas for bipartisanship still?

AG Bird:

Yes. I mean, there are always ways that we can work together. When it comes to issues like protecting crime victims, protecting consumers, those types of issues, I don’t think that there’s much partisanship that comes into play in that, or at least there shouldn’t. And so those are some good issues that we can work together on across the aisle. I’m going to add this too. My predecessor and I we had a hard fought campaign all year long last year. When I would prosecute a case, you go at it in the courtroom, but when the gloves come off, you always want to be working together and treating each other with respect. And he is the perfect example of that. He’s always been someone that can set aside some differences and work with people, and I appreciate that.

Jerry Kilgore:

Well, from someone that served with General Miller, he’s the ultimate gentleman all the time, always looking for ways to partner together on issues. So I’m so glad that he has been helpful to you and helped you through this transition. Is it going to change a lot this year given that maybe the Democrats don’t come to Iowa and that Iowa’s not first on their checklist?

AG Bird:

It is a change, because not having the Democratic caucus here in Iowa is a real loss, I think not just to Iowa, but the whole country. And of course, the Democrats do have an incumbent president, so this wouldn’t have been the hot type of caucus that it is when there’s an open field. Iowans do a good job of putting candidates through their paces, asking those hard questions, but also giving candidates a chance that sometimes the national pundits or media might not have given them. Barack Obama did very well here in the Iowa caucuses, and I think that attributed to him being elected President of the United States. I think Iowa was key to that. And so now we’ve got all the candidates coming around and meeting, and I’ve had a chance to meet with them and to ask them some questions as well. It’s been great for the state and it’s good to see such a talented field of leaders out there who care about our country.

Jerry Kilgore:

Well, that’s great that Iowa has that history and hopefully that history can continue and even expand back to the Democrats side in maybe ‘28 or in ‘24 if the president chose not to run again. Although he just announced, so I’m assuming he’s going to stick with this now.

AG Bird:

Yep. I assume so.

Meghan Stoppel:

General Bird, sort of taking a little bit of a left turn here with the conversation, a couple of maybe personal questions for you. I know you’re a mother of a young son, you’re balancing the challenges of a young family with a very demanding career. Just wondering if you can speak to our audience about how you make that balance work and whether that played into your decision to run for attorney general at all? Any insight there that you can share with us?

AG Bird:

Yeah. Well, I mean a couple of things. I’ve got a great husband. My husband, Bob and I, we have a six-year-old and so keeps us pretty busy. But just like during the campaign time, there are some days that we can go out as a family and do things together. And then sometimes I also just take my son in with me if I don’t have too many meetings or something like that so that he can have some office time, which he enjoys because for him, office time means he gets to play more Minecraft than I usually allow him to play. He loves that and loves his office time. Part of it too is saying no to some things. So I make sure we don’t do any events on Sundays and make sure that we protect our family time as well. But I’d say it’s been going pretty well. There’s always things to juggle and a lot to do, especially because right now my husband works in the Senate, so this is his busy time for the legislature. But we just find a way to get it all done. And I have to say, campaigns are pretty fun for little kids. So my son being six, he got to ride some of the time on Governor Reynolds’ campaign bus where we just toured town after town and had a great time doing it. But he just told me yesterday that he says he really loves the bus time, but he knows that time will never happen again. In other words, it shows that the fun time is over. I haven’t told him yet about what happens in three and a half years, but… The kids enjoy it. They like getting out there and meeting people and being part of the fun parts of politics.

Jerry Kilgore:

That’s cool. Just to see these campaigns through the eyes of children is always great, for sure.

Meghan Stoppel:

And it is one thing I will say that some of the, especially the smaller, more rural towns in the heart of the country do especially well are those sort of Main Street parades, which I’m sure General Bird will agree with me on. They do it up right with all the candy and the stickers and the hoopla.

AG Bird:

The parades and the town festivals are really fun. It’s a great way to see people, but also it’s a fun family event, and I still remember the parade where it was a busy long parade. Our son wanted to make sure that every single kid got candy, so if he saw somebody that didn’t get any, he went off into the crowd and made sure that they got some, which I thought was pretty sweet of him.

Jerry Kilgore:

Well, he’s helping his mom win attorney general for sure. Now, your husband also not only works in the Senate, but also was a veteran. And I know the attorney general has great abilities to help that community. Do you have any programs in mind that you want to put in place? I mean even consumer protection programs that could help veterans?

AG Bird:

Yeah. Well, we’re always looking for ways to help veterans, and my husband Bob is a Iraq War veteran. He volunteered while he was actually working in New York at the time. And so he’s my favorite veteran, but I have to say all veterans are important to us too, here in Iowa. So we’re looking for ways, whether it’s helping protect veterans from getting ripped off or other types of issues that might come up. We’ve also found that we’ve hired quite a few veterans on our staff as we’ve advertised openings, just because that public service aspect of someone who says they will go and serve their country and do whatever it takes, that’s exactly the kind of thing that we’re looking for here in this office.

Jerry Kilgore:

That’s great. I know we just finished, across the nation, crime victims’ month and we recognize crime victims. Is there a particular top of crime victim or a particular case that always comes back to your memory when we’re recognizing crime victims’ month?

AG Bird:

As a prosecutor, when I think about helping victims, of course that means we help everybody, because anybody could be a victim. No one chooses to be a crime victim, so we want to make sure our services engage with everyone and are helpful to everyone. And we also want to make sure to keep the politics out of it because it’s also not political. Not at all. So I think about domestic abuse victims that I have prosecuted, their perpetrator. I think about children who’ve been victims of sexual abuse. Those are the kinds of cases that really stick with my memory when I’m focused on helping victims.

Jerry Kilgore:

Right. Because in an attorney general’s office, you can not only have their victims of crime, but you can also have the victims of consumer protection violations as well.

Meghan Stoppel:

Right. Yeah, Jerry, that’s what I was just thinking about is the consumer protection staff, whether it’s the attorneys or the investigators or the mediation team that deals with the consumer complaints or just takes those phone calls from the constituents who need direction to the appropriate agency or are looking for guidance on how to handle a particular situation with the business. Those are taxing phone calls. As someone who’s taken those phone calls before, those are staff members that don’t often get the credit that they deserve. But it’s incredibly rewarding work at the same time. It’s one thing that folks who’ve worked in an AGs office understand and appreciate. But it’s hard work. General Bird, question for you, anything that you would want to share with our listeners in terms of advice or guidance for especially the business community in Iowa or operating in Iowa about how they can better get to know you or help you get to know their businesses to the extent that they’re operating in your state or just impacting your constituents?

AG Bird:

Well, I think the best thing to do, whether it’s a business or an individual, anybody that has a potential issue with our office or a question is just to reach out. And we are glad to sit down and work through those things and try to have a common sense solution that works. Whether it’s me out traveling around the state, meeting people and seeing what situations are like in different parts of the state, being there with people, understanding from their perspective, the real life impacts of how things are impacting them, or what the different regulatory burdens or other issues might be, that’s very helpful and very powerful, and it helps us to do a better job of serving.

Jerry Kilgore:

We certainly appreciate and we’re honored to have had you on this podcast with us today. We will look forward to seeing you at other meetings in the future.

Meghan Stoppel:

You have been listening to State AG Pulse, brought to you by Cozen O’Connor’s State AG Group Research for this podcast was provided by our associates, Ryan Bottegal, Hannah Cornett, Keturah Taylor and Emily Yu, as well as our policy analyst, Elizabeth Hill Hodish. If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please leave us a five star rating and review. This will help our visibility and will allow other listeners to learn about the podcast. And of course, please tune in again in two weeks for our next episode.