A Minnesota Senate panel will meet next week to approve payment of a $46,150 legal bill the day before the overdue bill would result in interest fees.

The money is owed to private attorney Dayle Nolan for dealing with ex-employee Michael Brodkorb's legal threats. Brodkorb has said he will sue the Senate over his December firing in the wake of former Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch's resignation. Koch resigned from leadership after being confronted about the affair she was having with Brodkorb.

The Senate's rules require both the majority and minority leader to sign off on the bill, received last month, before it can be paid.

But Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, said he will not okay the bill until there's a public hearing.

Although the Senate received the bill nearly a month ago, it had not scheduled that hearing until Friday, when it announced a public hearing for Wednesday morning at 9 a.m.

The hearing will come the day before Nolan's law firm would have started to charge 1.5 percent interest on the $46,150, a timeline Senate Majority Leader Dave Senjem, R-Rochester, acknowledged on Thursday.

The $46,150 bill only covers the work Nolan did the first three months of the year. She has continued to work for the Senate after that.