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Attorney General seeks new restitution account and major operating increase; committee ties on re-referral and lays bill over
Summary
House File 2,846 would create a consumer protection restitution account to hold recovered funds for return to harmed consumers and requests significant ongoing funding increases and new staff for the Attorney General's Office. The committee produced a 7–7 tie on a motion to send the bill to Ways and Means; the motion failed and the bill was laid
House File 2,846, the Attorney General’s budget bill, was presented on March 27. The proposal would create a Consumer Protection Restitution Account to receive funds recovered in litigation or settlement and to make restitution payments to consumers who have not otherwise been compensated; once the account reaches a $2 million balance any remaining recovered funds would transfer to the general fund, the author told the committee. The bill also accompanies a multi-year budget request from the Attorney General’s Office for one-time improvements and ongoing operating increases.
John Keller, Chief Deputy Attorney General, and Laura Sales, director of government relations for the office, testified. Keller summarized the office's request for one-time funds of $940,000 in fiscal year 2026 for security and IT upgrades, website modernization and performance-evaluation systems. He also described an ongoing request of $7.9 million per year to support operations, salary parity and 26 additional full-time equivalent (FTE) positions to handle growing workloads in litigation, investigations and administrative support. The AGO also seeks to convert the existing $1.0 million initial litigation fund into a revolving fund by retaining a small percentage of recoveries for future litigation and asked to increase a transfer for the Health and Teacher Licensing Division by $500,000.
Keller and Sales described measurable outcomes from past staffing investments, including increased prosecutions and recoveries by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and expansion of consumer protection capacity. Committee members questioned the office about return on investment, the Attorney General's absence from the hearing and whether the office had engaged with committee chairs for budget discussions. Keller said the Attorney General would make himself available to meet with members and noted the office's work on high-profile litigation, including actions against federal policy changes the office views as contrary to the Constitution or statute.
The committee took a roll-call vote on a motion to re-refer the bill to Ways and Means. The roll-call recorded 7 ayes and 7 nays; with the tie the motion did not prevail. Following the tied roll call, the committee laid House File 2,846 over for possible inclusion.
