Over five years ago, the federal Judiciary looked into the future and saw its rent projected to top $1.2 billion by 2009. That and other “must pay” requirements would consume 72 percent of the budget and create a $1.4 billion shortfall between available funding and requirements. Massive layoffs of staff seemed inevitable. Something had to be done to address this problem. Chief Justice William F. Rehnquist asked the Judicial Conference Executive Committee and its chair, Chief Judge Carolyn King, to coordinate an effort to contain costs in the Judiciary.

“If we had continued unchanged,” said Judge Julia Gibbons, chair of the Judicial Conference Budget Committee, “we would have seen drastic reductions in service to litigants and the public.”

Instead, the Judiciary initiated a comprehensive strategy that included sweeping cost- containment measures.

“As a result our current funding situation is—for the moment—adequate to meet our needs,” said Gibbons.

Containing Rent Costs
As a direct result of cost-containment efforts, the Judiciary’s rent bill in 2008 is $150 million less than projected back in 2004. Rent that had been anticipated to increase 6 to 8 percent a year only increased by 2.9 percent in fiscal year 2008.

“Controlling our rent was absolutely critical to our success,” said Gibbons. “If we had succeeded in cutting costs in other areas, but not in our rent, we still would have had a major problem.”

The rate of growth in rent was slowed by proactive measures. The first step was a national moratorium on courthouse construction that lasted 24 months and gave the Judiciary time to re-evaluate.

Then a national rent validation initiative spearheaded by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York identified mistakes in rent charges, giving the Judiciary rent credits and cumulative savings including cost avoidance over a 3-year period of more than $50 million. Additional rent adjustments and credits are anticipated, and the Judiciary now has a program in place to ensure accurate rent bills in the long term.

In 2007, the Judicial Conference endorsed the Circuit Rent Budget (CRB) program. While new courthouses are still prioritized and funded at the national level, each circuit judicial council now has an allocated rent budget, and must decide which projects it can afford. Incentives encourage efficient space use decisions. Over the next eight years, the CRB program will hold space cost growth to no more than 4.9 percent, on average.

Changes to the U.S. Courts Design Guide over the last two years have also contributed by reducing office size for staff and chambers space for judges. Requirements for the clerk’s office space, especially intake areas and records storage, have been reduced with the comprehensive use in the district and bankruptcy courts of the Case Management/Electronic Case Filing (CM/ECF) system. Library space has been downsized 13 percent as a result of reductions in lawbook collections.