The Republican-led Alaska House Majority has defeated an attempt by the Democratic-led minority to cut off funding for a legislative lawsuit to block the expansion of Medicaid in Alaska.
Now that a superior court judge has thrown out the lawsuit, Alaska Republicans are gearing up to appeal the decision to the Alaska Supreme Court. The $8.66 billion state operations budget approved by the Legislature early Friday morning contains about $150,000 to continue the lawsuit.
In an amendment considered about 2 a.m. Friday morning, the House minority attempted to remove that funding from the budget.
Rep. Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski and the Speaker of the House, refused to allow the amendment, saying it was out of order because it dealt with an ongoing legal action.
The Democratic-led minority objected to Chenault’s ruling, setting up what was effectively a proxy vote for a proxy vote on the lawsuit.
“This is interesting and a little bit complicated,” said Rep. Sam Kito III, D-Juneau, as lawmakers debated the issue.
Democrats lined up to speak, seizing the proxy vote as an opportunity to talk about the merits of the lawsuit without actually talking about the merits of the lawsuit.
“Somehow the state isn’t allowed to talk about how much money the state is spending on its litigation,” said Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage.
That’s because “this is a separation of powers issue,” said Rep. Lance Pruitt, R-Anchorage. “We as the legislative branch could influence the judicial branch.”
Rep. Matt Claman, D-Anchorage, said that technically speaking, there isn’t even an active case right now. Since the judge has thrown out the lawsuit and no appeal has yet been filed, the court doesn’t have anything on its docket.
“There is nothing pending before the judge,” he said. “There is nothing to adjudicate.”
Claman’s arguments failed to sway lawmakers, who stuck to caucus lines and voted 25-13 to uphold Chenault’s decision to rule the amendment out of order.
Rep. Cathy Muñoz, R-Juneau, voted with the rest of the Republican-led majority.
Assuming the $150,000 allocated for an appeal survives the Legislature’s budget process, it will be added to almost a half-million already spent. In August, the Alaska Legislature’s Legislative Council voted 10-1 (Kito was the lone ‘no’ vote) to spend $450,000 on a lawsuit against Gov. Bill Walker for expanding the Medicaid health insurance program without legislative approval.
The House Majority has repeatedly said the lawsuit isn’t about Medicaid, but about the separation of powers between the Legislature and governor.
