TOPEKA – Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt today asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court’s decision that upheld new U.S. Department of Labor regulations that threaten the availability of home health care services in Kansas.

In a friend-of-the-court brief, Schmidt argued that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia wrongly upheld agency rules requiring overtime compensation for home health care workers and narrowing the services that can be provided by these workers overstepped the agency’s legal authority. Schmidt was joined on the brief by 11 other state attorneys general.

“We believe the appeals court erred in upholding these rules and are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case,” Schmidt said. “These new rules are yet another example of a federal agency writing regulations in an area the Congress gave it no authority to regulate. The tragic result of these rules will be to limit the availability of much-needed services for Kansas seniors. This rule also amounts to another unfunded mandate on the states, which fund a significant number of home health care workers through their Medicaid programs.”

The case is Home Health Care Association of America, et. al. v. Weil, Case No. 15-683. Schmidt was joined on the brief by the attorneys general of, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. A copy of the brief is available at http://1.usa.gov/1U5f3Tl .