Vol. 36, Number 2—February 2004

Courthouse Funding Squeezes Through in Final Conference

The White House ignored them, the Judiciary independently fought for them, and finally, they were held up when their appropriations bill failed to pass in the first session of the 108th Congress. But in the end, Congress funded nine courthouse construction projects in the FY 2004 Consolidated Appropriations bill, which included the 2004 Transportation, Treasury, and Independent Agencies Appropriations bill.

Funding for the Judiciary's fiscal year 2004 courthouse projects had a rocky start. After the Administration failed to identify any money for new courthouses in its FY 2004 budget request, the Judiciary went directly to Congress, requesting $967.3 million in funding for 20 courthouse projects. Authorizations for the projects were approved in the House, but in a fiscally tight year, House appropriators failed to follow with the funding for courthouse construction. An additional difficulty was the shift in House Appropriations Subcommittee jurisdictions, which made courthouse projects compete for funding against larger airport, port, rail and highway projects. The House Appropriations Committee did include $248 million for 11 courthouse repair and alteration projects.

The Senate was able to come up with nearly $205 million for nine new courthouses, another $17 million for an office building to house 11th Circuit administrative staff, and repair and alteration funding.

When the House and Senate conferenced the Transportation, Treasury, and Independent Agencies Appropriations bills in November 2004, the Senate bill's funding was retained. However, the conferenced bill, along with seven other appropriations bills, were left in limbo until the 108th Congress returned for its second session and passed the consolidated appropriations bill.

"Funding for these courthouse projects is vital,” said Administrative Office Director Leonidas Ralph Mecham. "Members of the public have the right to adjudicate their claims in secure and efficient courthouse facilities, and the Judiciary and its courts must meet the challenges of increased law enforcement activity across the country.”

The Judiciary's Five-Year Plan follows a prioritization process, established by the Judicial Conference, in which all courthouse requests are scored based on four criteria: the year the building is projected to be out of space; security; operational problems at existing court facilities such as the building's physical condition; and the number of judges needing space.