U.S. Sens. Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran, and U.S. Reps. Tim Huelskamp and Lynn Jenkins, all of Kansas, rallied around approval of a $35.2 million federal grant to build a new middle school at Fort Riley. The grant was awarded as part of the Department of Defense Installations and Environment fund, according to a release from Roberts' office.

The Geary County school district will match a portion of the funding, $6.7 million, for a total of $41.9 million to demolish and build the new middle school on post.

The school’s groundbreaking is expected Jan. 22 with doors opening in 2014. The school will hold roughly 700 students.

"Last year, I toured the school, and it was clear it was in need of modernization and we had to address the overcrowding," Roberts said. "Men and women in uniform who protect and defend our nation, should not have to worry about the quality of the schools where they send their children,” he said.

Two members of the Kansas congressional delegation won leadership positions on Wednesday.

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Republican, was elected to serve as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Topeka, was elected vice chair of the House Republican Conference.

Moran will be responsible for recruiting GOP Senate candidates and helping them raise campaign funds.

Jenkins, who just won re-election to a third term, will be part of the Republican leadership team, advancing the party's agenda.

President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said today that one of the first post-election orders of business is to reach a deal to reduce the nation's debt.

Boehner offered to pursue a deal with Obama, who won a second term on Tuesday, that would include higher revenues as part of a revamped tax code that reduced rates for all, according to The Associated Press.

U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Topeka, said as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, she was ready to work on overhauling the tax code.

"Tax reform will raise revenue, reduce the $1 trillion in spending through the tax code, make the code more fair, efficient, and easier to comply with, and encourage job creation," said Jenkins, who also won re-election last night to represent the district that includes all of Douglas County.

Some of the faces in the Kansas Legislature will change, but after all the campaigning, outside money, and unprecedented redistricting, last night's election kept Republican-Democratic margins the same as before: the House at 92-33 Republican and the Senate 32-8 Republican.

It's possible those numbers could change slightly after recounts.

Several longtime House members were defeated including Democrats Eber Phelps from Hays, Bill Feuerborn from Garnett, Geraldine Flaharty from Wichita, and Republicans Mike Burgess from Topeka and Brenda Landwehr from Wichita.

State Rep. Anthony Brown, R-Eudora, lost in his attempt to gain a Senate seat, and two Wyandotte County senators fell, Democrat Kelly Kultala and Republican Chris Steineger.

And while the Republican/Democratic numbers hold steady, conservative Republicans own a majority of the GOP caucus in the Senate after a slew of moderate Republicans were swept out in the August primary.

In the presidential race, Kansas went solidly for Republican Mitt Romney with only Douglas and Wyandotte counties giving majorities to President Barack Obama.

In the 2nd Congressional District race, U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Topeka, won a third term against Democrat Tobias Schlingensiepen 57 percent to 39 percent. But if the district comprised only its two largest counties — Shawnee and Douglas — Schlingensiepen would have won.

Schlingensiepen outpaced Jenkins in Douglas County 56 percent to 40 percent, and Shawnee County, 49 percent to 47 percent.

But the counties surrounding Douglas County went bigtime for Jenkins, as did the counties in southeast Kansas.

Now that the election is over, a major question for Gov. Sam Brownback is how Kansas will respond to a Nov. 16 deadline under the Affordable Care Act to decide whether the state will partner in running a health insurance exchange or leave it to the feds. Asked this morning, the governor's office said they would get an answer on that soon.

UPDATE: Governor's office didn't provide a statement by end of day, but Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, who has wanted the state to do its own exchange, issued this comment: “We will be reaching out to the governor to discuss choices about an exchange—whether it could go forward as a state/federal partnership or whether it could be a federal exchange. We look forward to having that discussion soon, since the deadline for the decision is set for Nov. 16.”