About LEAP
LEAP is a bipartisan committee of four senators and four representatives with a staff of 10.
LEAP's enabling legislation is RCW 44.48. View the video file discussion on the creation of LEAP circa 1977 (see #17)
In 1977, the Washington State Legislature created the Legislative Evaluation and Accountability Program (LEAP) Committee to be the Legislature's independent source of information and technology for developing budgets, communicating budget decisions, and tracking revenue, expenditure, and staffing activity. LEAP also provides consulting to legislative committees and staffs, and provides analysis and reporting on special issues at legislative request.
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.