Judiciary Asks for Modest Increase in Fiscal Year 2001 Budget
to Cope with Growth in Caseload
Growing criminal caseloads throughout the federal courts, particularly in the hard-pressed southwest border courts, have prompted the Judiciary to ask Congress for a modest increase in funding for fiscal year 2001.
“We need additional funding for all courts experiencing growing workloads,” Judge John G. Heyburn II (W.D. KY), chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on the Budget, told a House subcommittee today. “Over the past several years the Congress has chosen to make enforcement of our drug and immigration laws a high priority,” Judge Heyburn said. “The law enforcement personnel you have funded are doing their jobs as evidenced by the explosion in the criminal caseload. We now have an imbalance in the system that only Congress can address. The long-term solution is to fully fund the Judiciary’s modest budget request for fiscal year 2001.”
Judge Heyburn, with Judge Robert C. Broomfield of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, one of the hardest hit of the border courts, Administrative Office Director Leonidas Ralph Mecham, and Judge Fern Smith, Director of the Federal Judicial Center appeared today before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies. The subcommittee, chaired by Representative Harold Rogers (R-KY), heard testimony on the need to provide a modest funding increase to the federal Judiciary to handle a tremendous growth in overall workload. Over the last four years, criminal filings increased 28 percent; the number of criminal defendants increased 23 percent; the number of pretrial services reports to the courts increased 24 percent, while offenders under supervised release increased by 12 percent.
“However,” Judge Heyburn testified, “because of funding constraints, funded court support staff required to handle this tremendous growth in workload has actually declined during this period. At a time when Congress continues to provide more resources to the Department of Justice, overall funded court staff are declining by 3 percent.”
The Judiciary is asking for a staffing increase in FY 2001 that is only 5 percent above fiscal year 1998 funded levels, “a very modest increase when compared to the 28 percent increase in criminal filings,” Heyburn told the subcommittee. The majority of the staffing increase would be for probation and pretrial services officers to handle the growing criminal workload. Nearly $258 million of the Judiciary’s total request would fund base adjustments simply to continue current operations. The remainder, or $105 million, would provide some additional resources to the courts experiencing workload increases, especially those on the southwest border. The Judiciary is requesting a total fiscal year 2001 appropriation for the courts of appeals, district courts and other judicial services of $4.2 billion.
The Judiciary’s budget request for fiscal year 2001 includes:
- a 9 percent increase in the defender services appropriation, or a total level of funding of $444 million, to handle a workload increase in Criminal Justice Act representations, and to increase the hourly rate paid to private panel attorneys. Panel attorneys have received only two hourly rate increases in fifteen years, which is making it increasingly difficult for courts to recruit and retain qualified attorneys. The present rate of compensation does not cover the national average overhead costs for a private attorney.
- a 7 percent increase for court security, or a total level of funding of $215 million, which will include funding for additional court security officers in new or renovated facilities, replacement of outdated security systems, and the acquisition of digital radios as mandated by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Organization Act.
- a total of $60 million for the Fees of Jurors program, a reduction from fiscal year 2000 which reflects a projected decrease in juror days.
Judge Heyburn also urged Congress to fully fund the needs of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the Federal Judicial Center and the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Finally, Judge Heyburn expressed the Judiciary’s deep concerns about the growing disparity in pay between the federal and private sectors. “This past fall, the Congressional Budget Office concluded that the pay and benefits of members of Congress, judges, cabinet officers, and members of the Senior Executive Service are less generous than those of executives at large and medium sized private firms,” Judge Heyburn said. “If the pay gap between the federal government and other employers continues to widen, the Judiciary and the political branches may find that they are unable to compete for the most talented individuals.” Judge Heyburn said the Judiciary was hopeful Congress would allow the mechanisms of the 1989 Ethics Reform Act to work, and that all top government officials would be provided a cost of living adjustment in fiscal year 2001.
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