Secretary of State and KLRD outline rules modernization, 5‑year rule review; Esper contracted for digital process

The Kansas Secretary of State’s office and KLRD briefed the Senate Committee on Government Efficiency on two related rulemaking initiatives: a multi‑year project to modernize the workflow for drafting, reviewing and publishing administrative regulations, and the 5‑year review process for existing regulations that was established by the 2022 legislature (House Bill 2087).

Clay Barker, general counsel for the Secretary of State, and Whitney Temple, director of communications and policy, described the modernization effort. The SOS said that three years ago the office moved to make the official, final regulation available only online so the published version updates immediately upon adoption; that change removed the decade‑old print‑volume reliance and made the online Kansas Administrative Regulations the official text. The SOS then launched a multi‑year digitization of the intake and review workflow: agencies previously circulated paper drafts through multiple offices (Department of Administration, Attorney General, Division of Budget, then the SOS) with stamps and manual version control.

The SOS said it completed a request for proposals and selected Esper as the vendor for a digital rulemaking management system; the contract is a three‑year engagement with a first‑year cost around $1.4 million and an expected public go‑live in early 2026 (target noted as April 2026). The new system will provide (1) an internal, secure workflow for agencies and approval offices that replaces paper stamping, (2) template‑based submissions and version control to reduce errors, and (3) a public‑facing portal so the public can track rules from intake through public notice and adoption. The SOS said the project also standardizes the five‑year review lifecycle so agencies and stakeholders receive timeline reminders and removes the practical difficulty of agencies that historically lacked centralized submission visibility.

KLRD managing analyst Jordan Milholland described the 5‑year review statutory process (the first cycle under the law is underway) and summarized early results from the reports submitted so far: of the three groups completed to date, roughly 6–8% of reviewed rules were identified by agencies as candidates for revocation; agencies also noted many rules are tied to federal program requirements and some items were historic or obsolete. KLRD noted an expedited revocation path in the statute that allows agencies to publish immediate revocations for clearly obsolete items, subject to committee notice.

Committee members asked about the fiscal note, timing and whether the modernization would produce measurable time savings; the SOS said the statutory timelines (for public notice and comment) are unchanged by the software but that the workflow and version control should reduce processing errors, stamping problems, and misplaced pages and should improve public transparency. Senators also asked whether the modernization will allow historic regulations to be searchable online; the SOS said older regulations are being scanned and will be made searchable, and KLRD reiterated that agencies already submit an August report each year listing rules under the five‑year review schedule.

Ending: The Secretary of State’s office asked agencies to participate in discovery and pilot testing; the SOS and KLRD said they will return to the committee with progress updates and sample dashboards in the coming months.