Joint money committees approve most Attorney General staffing requests, fund one-time dignitary protection and centralize investigators

The joint Assembly Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance approved a package of staffing and organizational changes for the Office of the Attorney General on motions taken during the committees’ consolidated budget-closing meeting. The committees approved the majority of decision units proposing additional deputy attorneys general, support staff and IT positions paid through the Attorney General Cost Allocation Plan (AG CAP), denied several other requested positions, and directed a one-time general fund appropriation to fund dignitary protection for the Attorney General.

The fiscal analyst, Stephanie Day of the Legislative Counsel Bureau Fiscal Analysis Division, presented the Attorney General administrative budget and detailed 17 decision units that would add attorneys, investigators, researchers and support staff funded through AG CAP and other sources. The committees voted on each decision unit individually and on associated technical adjustments.

Why it matters: the decisions will change how legal services are staffed across state agencies that pay the AG for representation (via AG CAP), create a centralized investigations budget to move investigators into a single unit, and provide short-term general fund support for protective services that previously were provided by detail from other offices. Those actions affect workloads at the Attorney General’s Office, budget allocations across state agencies, and where investigative authority and resources are housed.

Most votes on attorney positions were routine approvals or denials. The committees approved decision units E250 (a senior deputy attorney general to support the Medicaid unit), E251 (a deputy attorney general for public and behavioral health), E275 (a deputy attorney general for post-convictions), E278 (senior deputy for Criminal Prosecutions), E301 (management analyst and accounting assistant for fiscal), E307 (business process analyst for IT), and other staff positions described below. The committees voted to deny or not approve other requested positions, including E276 (a senior deputy for nuclear practice), E277 (legal researcher for Criminal Prosecutions), E300 (legal researcher for Post Convictions), E302 (supervising legal secretaries/legal secretaries), E303 (senior deputy for Complex Litigation), E304 (administrative assistant for Constituent Services), E305 (senior deputy to represent Department of Taxation), E306 (IT technician), and E308 (senior deputy for Department of Corrections). In several cases the committees approved technical salary corrections to align requested unclassified salaries with the correct annual amounts.

The committees approved a multi-part motion to centralize investigator positions into a new Investigations Unit. The governor recommended transferring approximately $16.5 million over the 2025–27 biennium (about $3.0 million general fund and $13.5 million other funds) and 50 investigator positions and contract funding from multiple AG budget accounts into the new investigations unit (budget account 1034). The committees approved the principal transfers of $3,000,000 (general fund) and $13,500,000 (other funds) for consolidation, approved transfers totaling $1,100,000 (general fund) and $1,900,000 (other funds) to include 10 additional positions/operating costs that the AG office said were inadvertently omitted from the original transfer, and declined to approve a separate $454,822 other-funds transfer to include two investigator positions that had been requested in decision unit E320.

On the matter of dignitary protection, Chair Monroe Moreno noted concern about threats to elected officials and the need for protection. The committees approved a motion to provide one-time general fund appropriations of $1,900,000 over the 2025–27 biennium to fund six criminal investigator positions and associated operating costs for dignitary protection for the Attorney General. The committees also requested a letter of intent directing the Office of the Attorney General, the Department of Public Safety and the Governor’s Finance Office to jointly study whether a single dignitary protection bureau for all constitutional officers should be established and to report back to the Interim Finance Committee by Aug. 1, 2026. Chair Monroe Moreno said, “I hate the times that we are living in and that our attorney general or any of our executive branch elected officials would have to make this request,” and the committee discussion referenced recent threats and assaults on elected officials as context for the one-time funding.

The committees also took actions to convert, reclassify or not convert several unclassified positions and set that final unclassified-salary determinations would be handled when the pay bill is considered. For one proposed conversion (the unclassified chief investigator to a contract position), the committees voted not to approve that conversion and directed fiscal staff to reestablish the state unclassified position’s salary in the adjusted base if the conversion was not approved.

Votes at a glance (selected decision units and motions from the Attorney General administrative budget account): - E250 — Approve (1 unclassified senior deputy attorney general for Medicaid). Motion carried. (Moved by Senator Dondero Loop; seconded by Assemblymember Bacchus.) - E251 — Approve (1 unclassified deputy attorney general for public and behavioral health). Motion carried. - E275 — Approve (1 unclassified deputy attorney general for post convictions). Motion carried. - E276 — Not approved (1 unclassified senior deputy attorney general for nuclear practice; committees voted to not approve the decision unit and to retain existing outside counsel funding arrangements). Motion to not approve carried. - E277 — Not approved (legal researcher, Criminal Prosecutions). Motion to not approve carried. - E278 — Approve (senior deputy, Criminal Prosecutions). Motion carried. - E300 — Not approved (legal researcher, Post Convictions). Motion to not approve carried. - E301 — Approve (management analyst & accounting assistant, fiscal). Motion carried. - E302 — Not approved (supervising legal secretaries/legal secretaries general-office support). Motion to not approve carried. - E303 — Not approved (senior deputy, Complex Litigation). Motion to not approve carried. - E304 — Not approved (administrative assistant, Constituent Services). Motion to not approve carried. - E305 — Not approved (senior deputy to represent Department of Taxation). Motion to not approve carried. - A25804 (budget amendment to add two senior deputy positions for Department of Taxation) — Approve; contingent transfers and offsets approved consistent with corresponding action in the Department of Taxation account. - E306 — Not approved (IT technician). Motion to not approve carried. - E307 — Approve (business process analyst for IT). Motion carried. - E308 — Not approved (senior deputy to represent Department of Corrections). Motion to not approve carried. - E309 — Committees voted to not approve E309 as originally read but approved decisions pertaining to unclassified salaries and position changes to be determined by the committees when the pay bill is considered; fiscal staff authorized to make necessary technical adjustments. - Investigator consolidation (budget account 1034 transfers) — Approve principal transfer of $3,000,000 (GF) and $13,500,000 (other funds) and additional transfer of $1,100,000 (GF) and $1,900,000 (other funds) to incorporate 10 positions/operating costs that were inadvertently excluded; committees did not approve a separate $454,822 transfer of other funds for two investigator positions (motion as described above carried). - Dignitary protection — Approve one-time general fund appropriation of $1,900,000 for six criminal investigator positions and related costs; request letter of intent to study creation of a statewide dignitary protection bureau; motion carried with recorded nays (Senator Titus, Senator Buck, Assemblymember Dickman, Senator Stone).

Discussion and next steps: committee members and staff repeatedly emphasized fiscal stewardship when deciding which positions to approve, and several positions were denied or deferred to the pay bill process. Stephanie Day (Fiscal Analysis Division) answered committee questions throughout the session and repeatedly noted technical salary adjustments that fiscal staff would make to align requested salaries with pay-band calculations.

The Attorney General’s Office and fiscal staff will prepare the technical adjustments directed by the committees, and final salary and unclassified position decisions will be resolved with the pay bill. The requested one-time general fund appropriation for dignitary protection was approved for the 2025–27 biennium; the committees requested a joint interim study and report on whether a permanent, centralized dignitary protection bureau should be established.