Yes, politics are killing the system. The cart was before the horse when they issued the technical RFP before the governance issues (which includes one-time and ongoing funding) were worked out. Technical solutions don't equal political solutions--and most definitely visa-versa. No contract has been signed, per my understanding, on the technical contract yet. If they don't watch out, even if they come to a political solution to system governance, they may exceed the allowable timeframe waiting for technical contract signature and end up having to issue a new RFP, or at least they'd have to negotiate an update. That could be a big monkey wrench, wouldn't it?