Congress Again Considers Courthouse Construction Projects

Courthouse projects are moving quickly through Congress, with recent action in both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, and action expected soon on authorizations.

In June, the House Appropriations Committee approved the Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2003, giving the General Services Administration (GSA) $309 million for 11 courthouse construction projects. The projects funded in the committee bill are Brooklyn, New York; Eugene, Oregon; Fort Pierce, Florida; Jackson, Mississippi; Austin, Texas; San Diego, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; Little Rock, Arkansas; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Cape Girardeau, Missouri; and Nashville, Tennessee—all the projects in the President’s Budget plus Cape Girardeau, and all part of the Judiciary’s Five-Year Courthouse Project Plan.

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Treasury and General Government marked up its appropriations bill in July. While details were not available, according to statements made at markup, the Senate bill includes the same courthouse construction projects as the House. The full Senate Appropriations Committee will complete action on the bill before the August recess.

The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management heard testimony last month from Judge Jane R. Roth (3^rd Cir.), chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on Security and Facilities. This committee must review and authorize courthouse projects before appropriations may be obligated by the GSA.

Roth told the subcommittee that the Judiciary seeks authorization for 14 courthouses scheduled for funding in FY 02 or earlier, but still unfunded, and eight more projects scheduled for FY 03. The President’s FY 03 budget request includes $260 million for 10 of the courthouse construction projects left over from FY 02, but none of the new FY 03 projects, and $66.9 million for six court-related repair and alteration projects. Roth noted, however, that because of a substantial backlog in unfunded projects, the Judiciary estimates the total requirement for new construction in FY 03 is closer to $1.02 billion.

Delays caused by a shortfall in courthouse funding since 1996 have increased costs. "Although GSA has estimated that construction costs were increasing 3-4 percent for each year of delay," Roth told the subcommittee, "in many cases the escalation factors have been much higher. Consequently, had the 22 projects the Judiciary supports in FY 03 been built when they were originally scheduled, the projected costs would have been approximately $24 million lower than they are today due to inflation."

GSA’s Public Buildings Service commissioner F. Joseph Moravec also testified at the authorization hearing. GSA’s FY 03 request, as reflected in the President’s budget, is $556.5 million in authority, including $260 million for 10 federal Judiciary courthouse construction projects and $66.9 million for six court repair and alternation projects. Of these projects, three require no new authorization (Jackson, Austin, Nashville), five require an additional authorization (Brooklyn, Fort Pierce, San Diego, Cedar Rapids, Austin), and two will require new authorizations (Eugene, Little Rock).

The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure met in June to authorize the courthouse repair and alteration projects plus all the public building projects in the President’s budget. Authorization of the FY 03 courthouse construction projects was postponed in order for the committee to obtain additional information from GSA on the projects not included in the President’s budget. The Committee has scheduled a markup on July 24 to authorize courthouse construction projects. The Senate authorizing committee, the Committee on Environment and Public Works, is expected to authorize courthouse construction and repair and authorization projects after the August recess.