Vol. 36, Number 8—August 2004

Congress Approves Three of Four Courthouse Projects for FY 2005
Action Reflects "Budgetary Realities"

The House committees overseeing authorization and appropriations for public buildings have come to the rescue of three of the four courthouse construction projects designated space emergencies by the Judicial Conference. Of four projects—Los Angeles and San Diego, California, El Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces, New Mexico—only Las Cruces did not receive funding or authorization.

The House Appropriations Committee approved the Fiscal Year 2005 Transportation, Treasury, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill, which includes $320.2 million for the Los Angeles and San Diego, California, and El Paso, Texas courthouses and for 10 repair and alteration projects. Now that Congress is in August recess, further action on appropriations bills must wait at least until September.

The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure approved authorizations for the same three courthouses and 10 repair and alteration projects, as well as amended authorizations for seven courthouse construction projects funded in previous years, but which had grown in size or cost during design. This action completes House authorization but the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works must still act on authorizations when Congress returns in September.

This substantially reduced list of courthouse construction projects on the Judiciary's Five-Year Plan for FY 2005—down to four from an original 19 projects—reflects actions recently taken by the Judiciary to "bring our requests more in line with today's [budgetary] realities," according to Judge Jane Roth (3rd Cir.), chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on Security and Facilities.

All four projects had Conference approval, despite the tight budget, because each has been designated a judicial space emergency. Roth testified at a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management held in mid-July that the designation means the ability of each court to execute its responsibilities "has been significantly impaired by the unavailability of space and inability to alter their existing space." The Conference also recognized the effect of aggressive border enforcement initiatives on each of the courts' facilities and the serious security and operational problems in these four locations. Prior to September 2003, the Conference had declared a judicial space emergency in only one location—Brooklyn, New York—over the past 16 years.

Roth told the House Subcommittee that the Conference previously had voted to freeze the annual Five-Year Courthouse Project Plan until not more than $500 million of courthouse projects remained on the first year of the plan. This left a list for FY 2005 that numbered 19 projects at a cost of approximately $1.6 billion.

"Recognizing the budgetary constraints facing both the Congress and the Judiciary in FY 2005 and beyond," Roth told the subcommittee, "the Judicial Conference voted to seek full funding in FY 2005 for only the four projects it had designated as judicial space emergencies in September 2003. These projects, with the exception of the Las Cruces, New Mexico, courthouse project, were funded and authorized. The El Paso, Texas courthouse project, while included, was significantly underfunded in the House appropriations bill.