JILL COLVIN, Associated Press

YPSILANTI, Mich. (AP) — President Donald Trump says his administration will restart a review of federal requirements governing the fuel efficiency of new cars and trucks.

The announcement was supposed to come in a speech Trump is giving in Michigan. But he revealed the plan a bit early during a meeting before the speech with auto company executives and workers.

Trump tells the group meeting with him in Ypsilanti that he’s in Michigan to “make right” on what they were promised. Then he announced the review.

Trump is also predicting that the U.S. will make thousands and thousands of additional cars.

The review Trump is restarting was halted by his predecessor, Democrat Barack Obama, before Obama left office earlier this year.

By JIM MCLEAN

Kansas lawmakers appear poised to pass a Medicaid expansion plan despite objections from Gov. Sam Brownback and uncertainty about the future of federal funding.

Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican, doesn’t hesitate when asked if the expansion bill, which passed the House in late February, will clear the Senate later this month.

“I believe the bill passes on the Senate floor,” Wagle says, adding that she believes it will be approved by a wide margin.

“It will be close to veto proof … because the (Kansas) health care community has become very vocal,” she says.

Despite those predictions, Wagle says “the timing is wrong” for expansion because of uncertainty in Washington, D.C., as Congress debates how to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the federal health reform law better known as Obamacare.

“It could sit there, because what I see the feds doing is winding that program down,” she says.

The American Health Care Act, the GOP federal replacement bill, would continue to provide most of the funding until Jan. 1, 2020, for the 31 states that have expanded their Medicaid programs. That gives Wagle and others pause. She worries that if federal Medicaid support drops below the 90 percent guaranteed in the ACA, Kansas would “all of a sudden” boot low-income adults covered by expansion off the program.

But health care providers and others advocating for Medicaid expansion see the deadline in a different light. They say it’s an opportunity to get in line for a program that Congress might not be able to shut down if all but a few states are relying on it.

“Our read of the bill is that it does not repeal Medicaid expansion,” says Tom Bell, president of the Kansas Hospital Association. “From our perspective, this provides states with some encouragement to actually expand their programs prior to that January 1 of 2020 date.”

David Jordan, executive director of the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, a nonprofit advocacy group that supports expansion, expects that the number of Republican governors pushing to save Medicaid expansion will pressure Congress into preserving the program in some form.

“There is just as much urgency because we cannot afford to be left behind,” Jordan says. “Expanding KanCare puts us in line to be one of the states that has expanded before any changes to the ACA are made.”

KanCare is the name of the state’s privatized Medicaid program administered by three managed care organizations.

Currently, KanCare eligibility is limited to children, pregnant women, people with disabilities and seniors in need of long-term care who have exhausted their financial resources. Parents are eligible only if they earn less than a third of the federal poverty level, or about $9,200 annually for a four-person family.

Single adults without children currently are not eligible no matter their income.

Expansion would make all Kansans who earn up to 138 percent of FPL eligible, or $16,642 annually for an individual and $33,465 for a family of four.

It’s estimated that approximately 300,000 Kansas would qualify for coverage under expansion, though only about half that number initially would enroll.

The Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee has scheduled two days of hearings on the expansion bill, starting March 20. If the measure passes out of committee, as expected, the full Senate could vote on it the following week.

Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of kcur.org, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics in Kansas. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks. 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City police are officially identifying the body found in a car in the Missouri River as that of a missing Wichita woman.

Police said Wednesday the body of 20-year-old Toni Anderson was inside her car, which was pulled from the river near Parkville Friday.

Her parents had previously confirmed their daughter’s death but police waited until receiving confirmation from a medical examiner.

Anderson, a Missouri-Kansas City student, was last seen in the early hours of Jan. 15 when she was stopped by a North Kansas City police officer for an improper lane change.

The officer watched her drive to a nearby convenience store.

Police have said they found no evidence of foul play. It’s unclear how Anderson’s car wound up at Platte Landing Park in Parkville.

HESSTON, Kan. (AP) — The father of an American United Nations worker who was among six people kidnapped in the Democratic Republic of Congo says his son has been doing humanitarian work and has had some success in persuading militia leaders to give up child soldiers.

John Sharp, who lives with his wife in Hesston, told The Wichita Eagle that his 34-year-old son, Michael Sharp, is committed to finding nonviolent ways to end conflict.

A Congo government spokesman said Monday that Michael Sharp and another U.N. worker, Zahida Katalan, of Sweden, were abducted along with three Congolese drivers and a translator while traveling through the Kasai Central province.

John Sharp says his son, who was raised in Indiana and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when not abroad, is resourceful and capable of finding a way out of his predicament.

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KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo’s government says two United Nations officials, one American and one Swedish, have been kidnapped along with four Congolese in Kasai Central province.

Government spokesman Lambert Mende said Monday that Michael Sharp of the United States and Zahida Katalan of Sweden were taken with three Congolese drivers and a translator while traveling by motorcycle.

Michael Sharp is the son of Hesston College Bible faculty members John and Michele Sharp, according to the school’s social media page.

A government statement says the kidnappers have not yet been identified. It was not clear when the kidnapping occurred on a bridge near the village of Ngombe.

Judicial authorities in the province have opened an investigation and are working with the U.N. mission in Congo to free those held.

This vast Central African nation is home to multiple militias competing for stakes in its rich mineral resources.

SIDNEY, Neb. (AP) — Cabela’s has laid off several dozen people as part of the outdoor gear seller’s efforts to reduce its expenses.

Cabela’s spokesman Nathan Borowski said Tuesday the exact number of layoffs will be determined after affected workers decide whether to apply for other jobs within the company.

Cabela’s plans to close its call center in Sidney, Nebraska, and consolidate operations at its North Platte call center within 30 days.

The other layoffs were at Cabela’s corporate headquarters in Sidney.

Borowski says the layoffs aren’t related to Bass Pro’s pending $4.5 billion deal to buy Cabela’s. Bass Pro is privately held and based in Springfield, Missouri.

Federal regulators are still reviewing the merger, and banking regulators have questioned Capital One’s proposed purchase of Cabela’s credit card operation.