State Attorneys General NAAG About Consumer Protection

As we've discussed in recent posts, State Attorneys General often take positions on important consumer protection policy issues through a joint letter from the National Association of Attorneys General, often referred to as a “NAAG letter.”  This leads to the inevitable question – what is NAAG and what does it do?  As former State Assistant Attorneys General, we often find ourselves answering that question, and can shed some light into this organization that has often perplexed onlookers.

It is common for people to use “NAAG” as a description of a group of AGs acting together, like in a NAAG letter or consumer protection multistate.  But this is a misnomer — NAAG is really just a nonpartisan association that facilitates the goals of the State Attorney General Community. While letters, grants, working groups, and meetings may be administered by NAAG, the organization itself has little to nothing to do with the actual underlying policy.  Instead, NAAG is governed by