TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ new Democratic congresswoman is preparing to vote for legislation drafted by her party’s leaders for reopening parts of the federal government, and she hopes President Donald Trump will accept the package.

Rep.-elect Sharice Davids said during an Associated Press interview Wednesday that the wall Trump wants to build on the U.S.-Mexico border is “not a good use of taxpayer resources.” Parts of the federal government have been shut down since Dec. 22 because the dispute over the wall has prevented passage of funding bills for several departments.

The legislation Davids supports would fund the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 8, with $1.3 billion for border security. Trump wants $5.6 billion for the wall.

Democrats take control of the House when the new session begins Thursday, but it’s not clear whether the GOP-controlled Senate would consider the Democratic package. Davids said the proposals have had bipartisan support in the past.

“Hopefully, we’ll see the House and the Senate send over a bill to get the government back up and going and that the president will see that it is not good for our country for the government to continue to be shut down,” she said.

Davids, who will represent the 3rd Congressional District in the Kansas City area, will be the only Democrat in the state’s delegation and the first since 2010. She is to be sworn into office Thursday, along with Republican Rep.-elect Steve Watkins from the 2nd District in eastern Kansas.

Watkins’ office did not immediately reply to messages Wednesday seeking comment about the dispute over border security. But he said repeatedly during his campaign that he supports building the border wall.

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TOPEKA—Fiscal year tax collections have exceeded previous year’s totals by $195.73 million according to data from the latest revenue report released Wednesday, according to a media release from the Kansas Department of Revenue.

Fiscal year 2019 tax collections so far total $3.39 billion, exceeding current estimates by $13.06 million.

December tax collections were down $24.24 million, or 3.41 percent below last December. December’s tax collections exceeded expectations for the month by $10.59 million.

Individual income tax collections in December totaled $291.52 million which is $43.85 million or 13.07 percent below the same time last year. Corporation income tax collections in December totaled $69.61 million which is $22.61 million above current expectations and $29.47 million above the same time last year. December sales tax collections fell short of last December’s collections by $1.97 million.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Democratic Kansas Gov.-elect Laura Kelly says she’s aware the state may need to help higher education institutions but has more pressing issues she needs to focus on during her first legislative session.

“We’re going to have to deal with situations in the state in a sort of triage approach, where we go after the critical issues first,” Kelly said, listing K-12 education funding, Medicaid expansion, infrastructure and the state’s foster care program as the main issues. “I’m fully aware of the needs for higher education and we will be reviewing those and doing what we can.”

Under Republican former Gov. Sam Brownback, higher education saw its budget slashed by $30.7 million. Lawmakers restored $6 million of that in 2017 and another $15 million in May. But despite the partial restoration of funding, the University of Kansas announced it would need to make a $20 million cut from its own budget.

Kelly, who will be inaugurated on Jan. 14, said she’s aware morale seems to be low at the university because of the proposed budget cuts and ensuing layoffs.

“Higher education has not been immune to the damage that has been done over the past several years,” Kelly said, referring to the state’s budget crisis during Brownback’s tenure.

She said government can help by passing a balanced budget and reinstating an executive order that provides state workers with protections from job discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity, she said.

“I think that will send a message to other states that Kansas is open and we are friendly and this is a place you’ll want to consider,” she said of the LGBT protection order. “Those are the types of things that can help the university and its morale.”

She said that increasing enrollment also would help and noted that foreign student enrollment is down.

“I think that’s a lot because families in other countries see the United States as an unfriendly place at the moment, so they are sending their kids to Canada or London.”

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a drunken driver crashed into a sheriff’s deputy’s home in southwest Missouri on New Year’s Eve.

The Greene County Sheriff’s Office says that no one was seriously hurt when the driver went off the side of a road and smashed into the corner of the home. The driver was under the age of 21.

Pictures posted online show a crumpled garage door and debris strewn across the driveway. The post says the deputy’s personal motorcycle and patrol car were damaged.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a New Year’s Eve reveler accidentally shot himself while preparing to fire a celebratory round in Kansas City, Kansas.

Police Chief Terry Zeigler tweeted that the shooting happened as the victim was getting ready to go out at midnight and fire his .22-caliber handgun. Zeigler says that when he sat the gun down on the couch, he accidentally shot himself in the stomach.

Zeigler says the man is expected to recover. Celebratory gunfire is illegal because of the risk of stray bullets hurting or killing someone.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic and Republican congressional leaders are expected to attend a briefing on border security at the White House as the government remains partially shut down and President Donald Trump asks in a tweet, “Let’s make a deal?”

Border Security and the Wall “thing” and Shutdown is not where Nancy Pelosi wanted to start her tenure as Speaker! Let’s make a deal?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2019

The partial government shutdown began on Dec. 22. Funding for Trump’s pet project, a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, has been the sticking point in passing budgets for several government departments.

The briefing is scheduled for 3 p.m. EST Wednesday, the day before Democrats are to assume control of the House and end the Republican monopoly on government.

The exact agenda, however, was not immediately clear, according to a person with knowledge of the briefing who was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the top incoming House Republicans — Kevin McCarthy of California and Steve Scalise of Louisiana — planned to attend, according to aides. The departing House speaker, Paul Ryan, was not expected.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who is expected to become speaker on Thursday, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer planned to attend. Pelosi said Tuesday that Democrats would take action to “end the Trump Shutdown” by passing legislation Thursday to reopen government.

“We are giving the Republicans the opportunity to take yes for an answer,” she wrote in a letter to colleagues. “Senate Republicans have already supported this legislation, and if they reject it now, they will be fully complicit in chaos and destruction of the President’s third shutdown of his term.”

The White House invitation came Tuesday after House Democrats released their plan to re-open the government without approving money for a border wall — unveiling two bills to fund shuttered government agencies and put hundreds of thousands of federal workers back on the job. They planned to pass them as soon as the new Congress convenes Thursday.

Responding to the Democratic plan, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders late Tuesday night called it a “non-starter” and said it won’t re-open the government “because it fails to secure the border and puts the needs of other countries above the needs of our own citizens.”

Trump spent the weekend saying Democrats should return to Washington to negotiate, firing off Twitter taunts. After aides suggested there would not necessarily be a traditional wall as Trump had described since his presidential campaign, Trump stated that he really still wanted to build a border wall.

On Tuesday morning, after tweeting a New Year’s message to “EVERYONE INCLUDING THE HATERS AND THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA,” Trump tweeted: “The Democrats, much as I suspected, have allocated no money for a new Wall. So imaginative! The problem is, without a Wall there can be no real Border Security.”

But he seemed to shift tactics later in the day, appealing to Pelosi. “Border Security and the Wall ‘thing’ and Shutdown is not where Nancy Pelosi wanted to start her tenure as Speaker! Let’s make a deal?” he tweeted.

Whether the Republican-led Senate would consider the Democratic bills — or if Trump would sign either into law — was unclear. McConnell spokesman Donald Stewart said Senate Republicans would not take action without Trump’s backing.

“It’s simple: The Senate is not going to send something to the president that he won’t sign,” Stewart said.

Even if only symbolic, the passage of the bills in the House would put fresh pressure on the president. At the same time, administration officials said Trump was in no rush for a resolution to the impasse.

Trump believes he has public opinion on his side and, at very least, his base of supporters behind him, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The Democratic package to end the shutdown would include one bill to temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security at current levels — with $1.3 billion for border security, far less than the $5 billion Trump has said he wants for the wall — through Feb. 8 as talks continued.

It would also include another measure to fund the departments of Agriculture, Interior, Housing and Urban Development and others closed by the partial shutdown. It would provide money through the remainder of the fiscal year, to Sept. 30.

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri state lawmaker wants to prohibit local governments from banning food and drink packaging amid a push by environmentalists to reduce the use of single-use plastics.

State Rep. Dan Shaul, an Imperial Republican and director of the Missouri Grocers Association, filed legislation that would prohibit bans, restrictions or other regulations on bottles, cups, bags, containers and other food and drink packaging. The limits would cover containers made of plastic, aluminum, cardboard and a variety of other materials.

Businesses could still opt to use more environmentally friendly to-go wrappings and other packaging for food and drinks under Shaul’s bill. But the lawmaker said the move toward more sustainable packaging should be consumer-driven and not dictated by local governments.

The bill “will not impede a business from making a decision that’s in their best interest or meets their business model,” Shaul said. “We think it should be their decision.”

The legislation is up for consideration when lawmakers return to the Capitol for their next session beginning Jan. 9.

Shaul’s efforts come amid a push by environmentalists around the world to cut down on single-use plastics that can pollute waterways and end up in the food chain, though the newspaper reported that the impact on human health is unclear.

Former Republican city councilwoman Laura Nauser opposed Columbia’s proposed limits on plastic bags in 2015, but she also opposes state pre-emption.

“Let the local council make the decision, and if it turns out to be a bad one, it’s a lot easier to reverse it at the local level than it would be if there was a problem — or a poor law — (that needed to be) reversed at the state or federal level,” she said.

Eliza Coriell, co-owner of the Crow’s Nest in the St. Louis suburb of Maplewood, said he’s open to restrictions on foam containers because she said there are cheap, biodegradable substitutes. But she said her restaurant uses plastic bags for to-go orders, and because they’re recyclable she’s not sure if a broader rule against them is needed.

“I’m not opposed to municipalities having the ability to ban certain things,” Coriell said. “And whether or not I would support (state) legislation one way or the other would depend on which things they (cities) were trying to ban.”

The Crow’s Nest has decided on its own to provide straws to customers upon request instead of automatically putting them in all drinks.