Globe Gazette | August 3, 2022

"Iowa’s Republican nominee for attorney general Brenna Bird said, if elected, she would challenge the Biden administration on various executive and administrative rules around climate change and the environment that she sees as hurting farmers.

Bird held a press conference Wednesday with Republican Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig criticizing both the Biden administration and Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat, for what they said was federal overreach on agriculture.

Bird pointed to several administrative rules which she said she’d challenge in court as Iowa’s attorney general, including plans to change the Waters of the U.S. rule, implementation of the Endangered Species Act, and Environmental Protection Agency rules regulating the use of herbicides.

'Those are unconstitutional overreaches that have to be stopped, and they’re stopped in court with a federal judge, and that’s exactly what I aim to do as attorney general,' she said.

Naig said climate and environmental rules from the Biden administration have hampered farmers’ controls over their land and warned that more regulation would hurt farmers at a time when input prices are historically high.

'We’ve seen that this administration has not been friendly to the ag sector and further efforts along this line could make things worse,' he said.

[...]

Bird also took issue with the structure of Miller’s farm division, a division of the office dedicated to farm issues. The division does not have dedicated attorneys, which she said shows a lack of focus on the area.

'The current attorney general says he has a farm division, but there are no lawyers in it at all," she said.'"

Read the full story here.

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