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Kansas legislative bill-drafting system rollout delayed amid testing and vendor staffing issues
Summary
The Legislature's CALOS modernization project to replace its bill-drafting software has been repeatedly delayed by complex defects and staff changes at the vendor; project leaders told the committee they are testing successive builds and may use the old system if the new platform is not reliably ready for the 2026 session.
Legislative staff and information-technology managers updated the Joint Committee on Information Technology about the CALOS modernization effort, the project to replace the Legislature’s bill-drafting and bill‑management system.
Project leaders said testing continues but significant bugs remain in the vendor’s builds. Eric Teal, director of application services for the legislative branch, told the committee the vendor has supplied weekly updates but the system still does not allow the Reviser's Office and legislative staff to “go all the way through the legislative process” without encountering problems. The steering committee had planned a production deployment after the 2025 session but the steering committee and vendors now expect a later date in the fall; a formal go/no-go decision was framed as dependent on successful testing.
Why it matters: A bill-drafting system is mission-critical to the Legislature’s session work. If the new system is not stable, staff told the committee they could keep using the current production system for the 2026 session to avoid disruption.
Committee briefing: causes for delays - Complex defects and regression: staff said many of the remaining issues are complex bugs and that fixing one area sometimes caused regressions in others, requiring repeated regression tests. - Vendor staffing and continuity: committee members and staff reported the vendor has experienced turnover and health-related absences among key staff; project managers told the committee the vendor’s original team has changed and that replacements affected continuity. - Time-and-materials contract and budget monitoring: legislative staff said the contract is time-and-materials and that the project has spent more than initially planned so far; staff are monitoring expenditures and phased deliverables as the work moves into phase two of the overall modernization program.
Reviser’s role and accuracy concerns Gordon Self, reviser of statutes, told the committee accuracy is paramount: revisers will accept a new drafting system only after it produces accurate statutory language. Self said the Legislature’s statutory drafting needs are unusually complex and that the reviser’s office has conducted multi-layered testing (“supertesters” plus larger groups) to validate builds.
Possible outcomes and next steps Project staff said they are targeting firm deadlines and will provide the committee an updated schedule. If the new system is not sufficiently stable before the 2026 session begins, Reviser staff said they are prepared to continue using the existing system for 2026 rather than risk session operations.
Ending: The committee asked legislative staff for a progress update and a recommended timeline before members must decide whether to switch platforms for 2026.
