Legislative Evaluation and Accountability Program
(LEAP) Committee

During legislative sessions, LEAP provides round-the-clock support to the staffs of the budget-writing committees of the Legislature (Senate Ways and Means, House Appropriations, Senate Transportation, House Transportation, and House Capital Committees). These staffs use LEAP systems to analyze budget requests, to prepare budget proposals, and to record and communicate budget assumptions. Throughout the Legislature, LEAP Fiscal Reporting Systems are used to provide detail and statewide fiscal reports and to compare budget versions.

The Washington state fiscal website, fiscal.wa.gov, was developed and is maintained by LEAP.  This site displays data that are routinely updated: for budgets as budget proposals are made public; for revenues, expenditures, and staffing, on a monthly basis as monthly actual data are finalized; for historical data, as those data are updated to reflect changes in budget formats; and for workloads, caseloads, performance measures, and performance audits, as websites that display those data are updated.  The fiscal website improves public access to state fiscal data and promotes government transparency through greater government accountability.

LEAP's enabling legislation is RCW 44.48. View the video file discussion on the creation of LEAP circa 1977 (see #17).