CAPE GIRARDEAU (AP) - The U.S. Department of Justice has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder challenging the federal health care overhaul.
But the request from the federal government comes as Missouri lawmakers are delivering an opposite request.
The state Senate passed a resolution Wednesday urging Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster to either join Kinder's lawsuit, file his own or join other state attorneys general already challenging the law.
The Missouri House passed a similar resolution last week urging Koster, a Democrat, to challenge the federal law. Missouri's Legislature is led by Republicans.
Koster's office said it would consider the request.
Kinder, who filed his lawsuit last July in federal court in Cape Girardeau, asserts that the health care overhaul exceeds Congress' authority, impedes state sovereignty and could harm the state's seniors. Numerous states have filed or joined lawsuits to challenge the health care overhaul since it was signed into law last March by President Barack Obama.