Funding Sought for Four ‘Space Emergency’ Courthouse Projects

     Congress should provide funding for four U.S. courthouse construction projects in fiscal year 2005, a federal judge testified on behalf of the Judicial Conference of the United States, the judiciary’s policy-making entity.

     Judge Jane Roth, a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and chair of the Judicial Conference’s Committee on Security and Facilities, said the four projects – in Los Angeles, San Diego, El Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces, New Mexico – have been declared judicial space emergencies.

      “The Judicial Conference declares a space emergency only when very unusual circumstances exist. In fact, prior to September 2003, the Judicial Conference had only declared an emergency at one location (Brooklyn, N.Y.) over the past 16 years,” she told a House subcommittee on July 13.

     Each of the existing four courthouses is confronted by “serious security and operational problems,” she said.

     The Conference had identified 19 courthouse projects ready for site-acquisition, design or construction funding in FY 2005, at a cost of about $1.6 billion. But in light of budgetary constraints, voted in March to seek full funding for only the four projects.

     “The ability of each court to execute its responsibilities has been significantly impaired by the unavailability of space and the inability to alter their existing space,” Judge Roth testified. She added that the conference also recognized “the effect of aggressive border enforcement initiatives on each of the court’s facilities and the serious security and operational problems in these four locations.”

     The Conference is seeking $395.5 million for the project in Los Angeles; $215.5 million in San Diego; $63.5 million in El Paso; and $60.6 million in Las Cruces.