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The judicial branch is asking Congress for slightly less funding for fiscal year 2024, even as the branch has expressed concerns about the federal court system and its ability “to administer justice effectively and efficiently.”
According to a United States Courts new release, the branch reduced its FY 2024 funding request to Congress by nearly $184 million as part of the regular budget process.
In March, the judiciary requested $9.14 billion for FY 2024, an 8% increase over FY 2023. It now is seeking $8.95 billion, a 5.8% increase.
Judge Amy St. Eve of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, chair of the Judicial Conference Budget Committee, and Judge Roslynn R. Mauskopf, secretary of the conference and director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, noted in a Nov. 8 letter to the U.S. House and Senate Appropriations Committees and subcommittees on Financial Services and General Government that this spending restraint helped the branch to reduce its budget request pending in Congress.
“Many courts and federal defender offices scaled back on critically needed hiring and other investments in FY 2023 because of the significant uncertainty about their ability to sustain those investments in FY 2024,” St. Eve and Mauskopf wrote.
Even with the lower funding request, the House of Representatives’ FY 2024 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill falls $270 million short of the judicial branch’s needs, while the Senate’s version of the bill would leave a $387 million gap, according to the U.S. Courts.
The House and Senate funding proposals are inadequate to offset inflationary pressures, or to properly invest in IT and courthouse security, according to the judges.
“A failure to adequately fund these basic costs will erode the branch’s ability to address its constitutional and statutory workload and support a strong judicial system that protects the rights and liberties of its citizens,” the judges wrote.
Without additional funding, the letter predicted staff reductions in clerk’s offices, probation and pretrial offices, and federal defender organizations.
The Nov. 8 letter identified several especially pressing needs, even after the judiciary scaled back its funding request. Those needs included:
- A 5.2% pay increase has been proposed for all civilian federal employees effective January 2024.
- A hiring freeze already is in effect in federal defender offices, and both the House and Senate bills would require further downsizing of defender staff.
- The appeal level will allow for hiring of additional security officers, replacement of aging courthouse screening equipment, and continued expansion of the judiciary’s Vulnerability Management Program to assist judges with the removal of their personally identifiable information from websites and online databases. The House bill would essentially fully fund FY 2024 courthouse security requirements; the Senate level would require deferring $33 million in security spending.
The judiciary is also seeking funding to meet information technology requirements in the courts, including cybersecurity needs and broader IT modernization efforts, and the additional staff needed to execute and oversee these programs.
“We continue to need significant new investments to address an increasingly complex security threat environment,” the Nov. 8 letter stated, including “the virtual security of our information technology networks and systems, and to mitigate the effects of aging and/or obsolete IT infrastructure.”
At the House and Senate levels, the judiciary would have to reduce planned spending on these activities by 15%, according to the letter.
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