NC lawmakers, federal regulators ask for 60-day hold on ACA suit

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – North Carolina’s legislative leaders and federal regulators have asked a judge to put on hold litigation in which the Republican lawmakers had sued these same regulators and Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration over his efforts to expand Medicaid.

Their joint motion marks a turn of events with President Donald Trump’s administration now running the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and interested in repealing the health care overhaul that allows expansion.

The motion filed late Wednesday seeks 60 days so Trump’s administration can evaluate issues in the lawsuit by House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger. They sued to block President Barack Obama’s administration from approving any expansion request Cooper proposed. A federal judge issued a two-week block that expires Saturday and is weighing whether to extend it.

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