Court Funding and Cost Containment

The federal Judiciary has succeeded dramatically in its five-year quest to reduce building space and rental costs, exceeding its original reduction goals by nearly 30 percent.

When a defendant is convicted of a crime in federal court, he or she owes many debts to society. In addition to likely prison time, offenders may be required to pay thousands of dollars in restitution, fines, and special assessments after sentencing.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 omnibus appropriations bill passed by Congress contains $6.78 billion in discretionary funding for the federal Judiciary, a 1.2 percent increase from the previous year and essentially equal to the Judiciary’s final budget request.

Court libraries and librarians in all 12 regional circuits are playing a leading role in two of the federal Judiciary’s most critical management initiatives: reducing building space and containing personnel and other costs.

For nearly 20 years, the federal courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland, has been overcrowded. In 1996, court officials requested an expansion, and Congress eventually authorized $10 million to design a large annex building.

In order to adequately support the Constitutional and statutory mission of the federal courts, the Judiciary today asked Congressional appropriators to provide $7 billion in discretionary funding for fiscal year 2016, a 3.9 percent increase over the preceding year.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York had a room filled with files. That’s not unusual. Even though today most cases are filed electronically, case records have a way of accumulating over the years. But in less than five months, with the end of the fiscal year, the court needed to clear the room. The files had to go.

The federal Judiciary has made major strides in the first year of a five-year campaign to reduce court building space by 3 percent.

The Judiciary will receive $6.7 billion in discretionary appropriations, a 2.8 percent, or $182 million, increase above FY 2014 discretionary funding. The FY 2015 level is essentially equal to the Judiciary’s re-estimated FY 2015 funding request.

The federal Judiciary and the General Services Administration (GSA) are launching an important new dialogue on space and rent management, at a time when the U.S. government’s landlord and one of its largest tenants are both grappling with a new era of downsizing.

A probation office in Chicago has become the national "flagship" of a federal Judiciary initiative to shrink rent costs, by reimagining and downsizing the traditional office workplace.

In a space-cutting move that will save the judiciary more than $1 million a year in rent and security costs, the federal bankruptcy court in Miami is moving into a nearby district court building.

A representative of the Judicial Conference expressed strong concerns to Congress about the Judiciary’s long-term ability to carry out its functions under a no-growth federal budget.

Federal Judiciary leaders today received a report on the impact of reduced funding due to sequestration – which cut court staff and delayed cases – and a separate report on an aggressive multi-faceted strategy to reduce the costs of court space.

The hourly pay rates for lawyers who represent indigent defendants in federal criminal cases, which were temporarily reduced last year, have been restored, effective March 1, 2014.