The Alaska Legislature has scheduled a short-notice, closed-door committee meeting about its challenge to Medicaid expansion for Wednesday afternoon.
The Legislative Council, the joint House-Senate committee that last month authorized the Legislature's lawsuit seeking to stop Gov. Bill Walker from unilaterally expanding the public Medicaid health-care program, is scheduled to meet 1 p.m. in Anchorage Wednesday.
A state Superior Court judge and the Alaska Supreme Court have rejected requests by the Legislature to temporarily block Walker's administration from expanding the program, but the lawmakers' underlying legal challenge of Walker's authority to make that decision is still alive.
Following the Supreme Court ruling Monday, the Walker administration began expanded enrollment Tuesday, as scheduled.
Sen. Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, the Legislative Council's chairman, said lawmakers would hear from their staff attorney in Juneau during Wednesday's meeting. No action will be taken, Stevens said in a brief phone interview.
The substance of the meeting will be held in a closed-door "executive session," Stevens said. The state's open meetings act allows executive session under specific circumstances, including discussions about lawsuits. Actual votes on decisions need to be taken publicly.