Accountability and Resource Management – Annual Report 2025

Strengthening Fiscal Controls

The Judiciary completed a major upgrade of its budget, accounting, and acquisition system in 2025. The updated application strengthens the system’s cybersecurity protections and provides a modern platform capable of implementing financial management best practices. The Judiciary Integrated Financial Management System allows court units, federal public defender organizations, and Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO) personnel to record and maintain financial and procurement information, as well as to report on that data, within one application. 

In addition, the Judiciary modernized an application to more effectively conduct its annual assessments of internal controls. These annual assessments promote efficient operations, reliable reporting, and compliance with laws and regulations. The upgraded application calculates a risk score based on objective criteria and professional judgment, asks questions that are targeted to each court unit or federal defender organization’s operations, and displays a real-time dashboard that tracks assessment progress. 

Fostering Dignity and Respect in the Workplace

The Judiciary in March released the results of its first-ever national employee survey exploring workplace issues, along with a report containing recommendations for improvements aimed at achieving the Judiciary’s goal of fostering an exemplary workplace. 

The Report of the Federal Judiciary Workplace Conduct Working Group on the Judiciary’s 2023 National Workplace Survey (PDF) showed that the overwhelming majority of Judiciary employees are satisfied with their workplaces. Eighty-four percent responded that they are satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs and 80 percent said they would recommend their court or employing office to others. 

The survey also revealed that wrongful conduct is not pervasive in Judiciary workplaces, with nearly 92 percent of employees reporting that they had not experienced wrongful conduct of any kind. Retaliation for reporting misconduct is also not widespread, with 2 percent of all respondents indicating that they had experienced some form of retaliation. 

The survey was conducted by the Federal Judicial Center for the Workplace Conduct Working Group, a group of judges and court executives who have been working on workplace conduct issues since early 2018 at the request of the Chief Justice. It was sent to nearly 28,000 employees in 2023, and the response rate was a statistically impressive 50 percent. 

The results provided a wealth of data that the Judiciary is using to gain a deeper understanding of employees’ experiences and to guide continued efforts to foster an exemplary workplace for all employees. The Working Group used the survey results as a basis for nine new recommendations in a report to the Judicial Conference of the United States, which was also released in March. 

The recommendations included: clarifying procedural rights, remedies, and obligations under the Model Employment Dispute Resolution (EDR) Plan; additional training and resources for EDR coordinators; promoting greater use of trained investigators; ensuring that presiding judicial officers are free from even the appearance of partiality; and providing employees who report misconduct more information about actions taken. The Working Group also recommended steps to clarify substantive standards, improve educational efforts, and promote greater uniformity in policies and procedures across the branch.  

In addition to insights gained from the survey, the Judiciary benefited from the recommendations of two independent studies completed in July 2024 — one by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the other by a joint research team from the Federal Judicial Center and the National Academy of Public Administration. Both independent reports found that significant aspects of the Judiciary’s workplace conduct system were working well, validated the overall approach, and provided recommendations for improvements.  

Many reforms have been put in place since the Judiciary began working in earnest on workplace issues in 2018. 

Every court and employing office now has in place an EDR plan consistent with the Judiciary’s Model EDR plan that was approved by the Judicial Conference in 2019. Every Judiciary employee has multiple options and resources for addressing workplace conduct issues, including the right to seek confidential informal advice from multiple points of contact, request an assisted resolution, or file a formal complaint. 

Trained professionals at the national, circuit, and local court levels provide employees with direct assistance on a wide range of workplace issues. Every Judiciary employee has the right to seek confidential advice and guidance from the national Office of Judicial Integrity, the director of workplace relations in the employee’s circuit, and one of the trained EDR coordinators in the employee’s court or office. 

But as Judge Robert J. Conrad Jr., Director of the AO, has said, “Fostering an exemplary workplace is not a finish line to be reached; it’s an enduring commitment.” 

To that end, various Judiciary advisory groups and Judicial Conference committees are actively considering recommendations to further improve workplace conduct policies and systems. 

Monitoring Compliance, Improving Ethics Awareness

In 2025, the AO improved and strengthened its compliance monitoring practices. Significant efforts were undertaken to improve understanding and remind staff of their ethics responsibilities and to better ensure that compliance risks are monitored so they can be addressed by the AO’s leadership.

Government Accountability Office (GAO) Studies

The GAO regularly conducts studies related to Judiciary operations. The AO works with the committees of the Judicial Conference of the United States and other stakeholders to ensure full consideration of the agency’s recommendations. In 2025, the AO coordinated the Judiciary’s participation in six studies: 

• A review that began in March 2025 as mandated by the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act of 2022. The AO provided the GAO with updated information on the efforts of its Threat Management Branch, and multiple judges were interviewed by GAO regarding their experiences with threats and the services offered by the AO and the U.S. Marshals Service.
• A study comparing processes to safeguard the personal information of senators, their families, and staffs with the processes to safeguard personal information in the executive and judicial branches. Beginning in March 2025, the AO provided information to GAO regarding the protection of judges’ and certain family members’ personally identifiable information.
• A continuation of a November 2024–initiated study of practices related to the Crime Victims Fund (CVF), which includes the Judiciary’s role in fund deposits and debt collection efforts. The AO provided the GAO with information regarding Judiciary policies relevant to the CVF.
• An assessment of the Judiciary’s use of administrative space that began in June 2025. The study is reviewing the measurement of the use of administrative space and the potential underuse of space, associated costs, and steps taken to reduce space or consolidate administrative operations.
• A July 2025 report required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. The informational report provided analysis of legislative changes to the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and efforts to improve resolution plans and identify plan weaknesses.
• A study that began in September 2025 on justice system–involved workers. The focus areas include types of work arrangements in federal prisons and other court-mandated situations (such as employment as a condition of probation), the impact of work arrangements, and the potential applicability of worker protection laws in court-mandated situations.