DES MOINES, IOWA (December 29, 2022) — Attorney General Tom Miller shares his gratitude with Iowans after serving forty years in office. He will leave office January 3.
“I’m very thankful to Iowa voters. I feel fortunate to have served ten terms in a job that I love,” said AG Miller, who is the longest serving attorney general in US history.
While AG Miller chalked up many legal victories and other accomplishments in his term, he said he’s most proud of the integrity and dedication of his office.
“We did it our way. We never compromised on our values and principles. That is enormously satisfying to me,” he said. “I’m so thankful to my staff and impressed with their quality of work, their professionalism, and their dedication.”
AG Miller became known as a leader nationally in consumer protection and leading multi-state lawsuits against major corporations.
“I became a big believer in multi-states. As a small state, we could not compete with the resources of large corporations,” AG Miller said. “By working together as state AGs and with the federal government, we were able to accomplish things we could not alone.”
Three cases stand out for AG Miller, who served as a leader among state AGs in these historic cases:
The Master Settlement Agreement with tobacco companies in 1998. The settlement created restrictions on the advertising, marketing, and promotion of cigarettes, including a ban on targeting children through advertising, and led to reductions in smoking. In the last 24 years, Iowa has received more than $1.4 billion in payments under the settlement. “Before then, the tobacco companies had never paid a dime," AG Miller said.
Challenging the Microsoft monopoly, which led to a settlement in 2002 and changes in the software industry. “This antitrust case was good for competition, good for innovation, good for business, and, most important, good for consumers," AG Miller said.
Recovering $52 billion for American homeowners in the national bank mortgage case in 2012.
More recently, AG Miller’s office has been a leader in cases against pharmaceutical companies, distributors, pharmacies, and others who contributed to the opioid crisis. The settlements have resulted in new restrictions on the sales and marketing of opioids and are expected to bring in nearly $350 million to Iowa over the next eighteen years.
Other accomplishments by AG Miller include opposing the death penalty, supporting criminal-justice reform, creating the nation’s first farm division and fighting consolidation in the agriculture industry, and reforming how sexual-assault investigations are done in Iowa.
AG Miller said he plans to work part time after he steps down.
“I am looking forward to the future. I want to stay active in issues I enjoy. I haven’t had much time off since law school, so I’m looking forward to enjoying some time off.”
AG Miller’s timeline of accomplishments:
1979 — AG Miller establishes first Farm Division in a state attorney general office.
1983 and onward — AG Miller was a leader in stopping the death penalty from being reinstated in Iowa.
1985 — AG Miller helped to create the Iowa Mediation Service, which helped hundreds of Iowa farmers to remain on their farms during the farm crisis.
Mid-1990s — AG Miller led efforts to stop telemarketing fraud by installing an elderly victim’s phone number in the AG’s office. Resulted in criminal convictions and signs in fraudster broiler-rooms stating “Don’t Call Iowa!”
1997 — AG Miller launches antitrust litigation against Microsoft for monopolistic practices.
1998 — AG Miller was a key player in the historic Master Settlement Agreement with major tobacco companies, yielding more than $1.4 billion for the State.
1998 — AG Miller’s office files first case under new Sexually Violent Predator Law.
2001 — AG Miller’s Consumer Advocate negotiates multi-year freeze in electric rates and new generation.
2002 — AG Miller obtains $1 million in refunds for victim of misleading sweepstakes solicitations and bars sweepstake frauds in the future.
2003 — AG Miller backs huge MidAmerican wind power project.
2003 — AG Miller successfully argues case before the US Supreme Court: Fitzgerald v Racing Association of Central Iowa.
2004 — AG Miller sues top five global-warming polluters, seeking dramatic reductions in power plant emissions.
2004 — AG Miller argues criminal case in US Supreme Court and obtains unanimous decision upholding the criminal conviction.
2005 — AG Miller urges Legislature to fund drug treatment to cut crime and help families.
2005 — AG Miller settles Smithfield Foods’ challenge of Iowa’s prohibitions on vertical integration of pork production and garners a “contractor bill of rights” for Iowa’s hog farmers.
2008 — AG Miller establishes “Iowa Mortgage Help” to aid owners struggling with mortgage payments.
2009 — AG Miller hails “Private Right of Action” consumer law.
2010 — AG Miller joins states defending new global warming pollution limits.
2010 — AG Miller hails enactment of his proposal to take guns away from domestic abusers.
2011 — AG Miller’s office recovers $215 million IPERS money from Westridge Fraud Case.
2012 — AG Miller leads joint State-Federal Mortgage Servicing Settlement on foreclosure wrongs. The settlement eventually recovers $52 billion for consumers.
2014 — AG Miller announces that 400,000 Iowans to receive refund notices in $40 million buying-club cases.
2014 — AG Miller obtains record $1.5 million civil penalty for air quality violations at Muscatine grain-processing plant.
2014 — AG Miller urges EPA to maintain renewable fuels standard for ethanol and biodiesel.
2015 — AG Miller issues statement that e-cigarettes are dramatically less harmful than combustible cigarettes.
2015 — AG Miller says 300 former Ashford Online Education students will receive $7.25 million for alleged consumer fraud.
2015 — AG Miller is named as board chairman of the American Legacy Foundation, a national organization devoted to ending youth tobacco use.
2016 — AG Miller announces strengthened consumer protection efforts for Iowa’s veterans and service members.
2017 — AG Miller reaches deal to cut public agency price for life-saving opioid antidote.
2017 — AG Miller widens investigation of opioid manufacturers and distributors.
2017 — AG Miller joins multistate lawsuit challenging the rescinding of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals).
2018 — Governor Kim Reynolds signs AG Miller’s bill to improve consumer protections for veterans.
2018 — AG Miller meets with bishops and survivors of abuse to gather information on clergy abuse.
2018 — AG Miller helps lead $575 million settlement with Wells Fargo over sales practices.
2019 — AG Miller joins bipartisan investigations of Google and Facebook.
2019 — AG Miller and other AGs secure $600 million settlement over Equifax data breach.
2019 — AG Miller helps lead $493.7 million agreement with for-profit education company Career Education Corp.
2019 — AG Miller sues Purdue Pharma over opioid crisis.
2020 — AG Miller becomes longest-serving attorney general in US history on January 11, surpassing former Michigan Attorney General Frank J Kelley’s record of 37 years, five days.
2020 — AG Miller assist Iowans through the pandemic, including making it easier to file complaints over price-gouging.
2020 — AG Miller successfully proposes “first in the nation” law to protect student-loan borrowers against predatory “rescue” companies.
2020 — AG Miller introduces Track-Kit, a statewide reporting program that tracks the status of sexual assault kits.
2020 — AG Miller and other AGs reach $118 million settlement with Apple over iPhone throttling.
2020 — AG Miller leads $86.3 million settlement with mortgage servicer Nationstar.
2020 — AG Miller joins multi-state, federal lawsuit in suing Facebook over multi-state violations.
2020 — AG Miller joins multi-state lawsuit seeking to end Google’s illegal monopoly in search.
2021 — AG Miller releases finding in a years-long investigation into clergy abuse in Iowa.
2021 — AG Miller leads multistate amicus brief in the US Supreme Court supporting Iowa’s renewable-fuel industry.
2021 — AG Miller’s office successfully prosecutes Cristhian Bahena Rivera for the 2018 abduction and killing of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts in a case that attracted national attention.
2021 — AG's Office and University of Iowa Health Care launch statewide opioid treatment program.
2021 — AG’s Office wraps up six-year effort to address untested sexual-assault evidence kits throughout the state. The project results in 1,606 kits tested, four criminal charges to date, and several improvements in the way kits are processed to benefit victims.
2021 — AG Miller launches the Consumer Protection Hero Awards to honor everyday Iowans who acted to stop or prevent fraud.
2021 — AG Miller is elected president of the National Association of Attorneys General.
2022 — AG Miller begins examination into the increase in fertilizer prices.
2022 — AG Miller announces that over the last ten years, his office has secured $178.67 million for Iowa consumers.
2022 — AG Miller launches IowaOpioidHelp.com to help Iowans with Opioid Use Disorder and begins program with Goldfinch Health for rural hospitals to prevent opioid addiction.
2022 — AG Miller secures a series of settlements with companies that contributed to the opioid crisis. The settlements are expected to bring in approximately $320 million to the state and local governments.
2022 — AG Miller sues tobacco companies over $133 million in withheld payments to the state.
2022 — Iowa to receive $6.17 million in multi-state settlement with Google over location tracking.
2022 — NAAG creates the Miller-Wasden Unity Award to honor AGs who exemplify AG Miller’s service and commitment to civility and bipartisanship.
