This moves 133 executive branch agencies, boards and commissions into a centralized system that will streamline work for staffers, while also impacting highly regulated sectors such as banking and insurance. The system includes first drafts, reviews, approvals, publication and publication syndication. While current regulations are already available online, expired regulations will also soon be accessible to the public.
In Kansas, the Secretary of State's Office is tasked with a broad range of services for voters, businesses and government entities. It oversees both the Kansas Register and the state’s administrative rule-making process, giving it the central role of how regulations are reviewed, published and made available to the public. Under the previous process, agencies submitted draft regulations and supporting materials — including economic impact and environmental benefit statements — through a multistep review process involving the Department of Administration, the Attorney General and the Division of the Budget before final filing for publication in the Kansas Register.
Secretary Scott Schwab told Government Technology last October that state employees had to literally carry stacks of paper across the 20-acre Capitol Square and to the Register and Kansas Administrative Regulations Department in order to get through the review and publication process. This opened the process up to problems such as missing pages, excessive paper waste and human error. The old process also offered less transparency than its replacement, the Secretary of State's Office wrote in an email.
The process is now completely digital and includes version control and role-based permissions intended to reduce errors associated with paper handoffs, according to a news release from Esper, a tech vendor who partnered with the state on this project.
Configurable approvals, due-date tracking and digital stamping should improve visibility into what stage regulations are in and reduce delays between agency handoff. Built-in guidance and templates are aimed at helping agencies submit compliant, consistent filings while reducing the editorial workload. Published regulations are ADA-compliant and accessible online, and the digitized system is intended to more efficiently preserve institutional knowledge.
The state signed a three-year contract with Esper for this system at a cost of $1.4 million.
“Kansans deserve a government that operates at the highest level,” Schwab said in the release. “Modernizing our regulatory process improves transparency, accountability, and decision-making — this is how government should work.”
