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An Indiana congressman is looking to help control government spending with his first bill, the Courthouse Affordability and Space Efficiency Act.
The bipartisan bill, led by Republican Rep. Jefferson Shreve, would place guardrails on the construction of new courthouses by requiring the government to match a courthouse’s size and cost with its demonstrated need.
Specifically, it would prohibit the General Services Administration from building a new courthouse if that courthouse does not meet the Act’s courtroom-sharing requirements.
“Drawing on my experience building a business from a small startup, I know how unnecessary or oversized assets can hinder operations,” Shreve said in written remarks. “The federal government has long fallen into the habit of overspending on courthouses.”
The CASE Act passed the House last month, but with the government shutdown halting all legislative activity, it is unclear when it will come before the Senate.
Under the act, the GSA must ensure courtroom sharing by senior district judges, magistrates and bankruptcy judges.
“This legislation will ensure that courthouses are being fully utilized to prevent the unnecessary expansion of our federal real estate portfolio,” Sam Graves, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in a written statement.
Doria Lynch, a spokesperson for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, said the court had not received any information or guidance from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts or the 7th Circuit regarding the CASE Act. The district has no funding pending for any new courthouse construction.
A spokesperson with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana did not directly respond to The Indiana Lawyer’s inquiry on whether the act would affect the Northern District.
A nationwide issue
Across the country, Shreve said, millions of square feet of expensive courthouse space sit underused, draining taxpayer dollars. He said he wrote the CASE Act to “stop that waste” and instead promote smarter uses of the facilities already in place.
“This is a problem we can fix—and doing so will ease the financial burden on hardworking Hoosiers and taxpayers nationwide,” Shreve said.
According to a 2010 report by the Government Accountability Office, from 2000 to 2010, 33 federal courthouses had 3.56 million square feet of extra space that cost an estimated $835 million to construct and $51 million annually to operate and maintain.
The GAO later recommended that the General Services Administration—which is the U.S. agency tasked with managing federal buildings and property—ensure that federal courthouses are within their authorized size, retain caseload projections to improve the accuracy of its 10-year judge planning and establish and use courtroom-sharing policies based on scheduling and use.
In its 2025 analysis of federal courthouse construction, the GAO noted that the GSA had received $1.9 billion over 2016 through 2022 to construct 15 federal courthouses. That investment is greater than what has generally been reserved for new courthouses.
“According to the judiciary, this funding provided the judiciary and GSA an opportunity to address long-standing needs by constructing new courthouses and annexes, as well as by repairing and completing alterations of existing courthouses,” stated the GAO’s analysis.
In the 2010 study (which was often cited by Chairman Graves in a report submitted to Congress alongside the Act), the GAO found that courtroom sharing could have reduced the number of courtrooms needed in 27 of the 33 district courthouses built from 2000 to 2010 by 126 courtrooms—about 40%.
Because some judges had raised concerns about the uncertainty of courtroom availability, the GAO had also designed a model to show that there was enough unscheduled courtroom time for “substantial courtroom sharing.”
In 2019, the Judicial Conference updated some of its policies for senior district judges, magistrate judges and bankruptcy judges sharing courtrooms. Those new sharing policies were only implemented for courthouses that are renovated or newly constructed, stated Graves’ report; they do not impact existing courthouses.
Courtroom sharing in Indiana
Indiana has two federal court divisions: the Northern and Southern districts.
The Southern District has four courthouses spread throughout the state, with spaces in Evansville, Indianapolis, New Albany and Terre Haute.
The Birch Bayh Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Indianapolis is the largest federal courthouse in the Southern District, with four district courtrooms, five magistrate courtrooms, one bankruptcy courtroom, one district hearing room and two bankruptcy hearing rooms. The building underwent a significant $70 million renovation from 2010 to 2012.
The only other courthouse in the Southern District with more than one courtroom is New Albany’s, which has a singular district and bankruptcy courtroom.
Courtroom borrowing and sharing are common throughout the Southern District, and it has been for years, Lynch said.
“The judges and court staff work closely to ensure that appropriate courtroom space is available whenever it is needed,” Lynch said in an email.
For example, in Indianapolis, Senior District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson and Magistrate Judge Kellie Barr share a courtroom. And since Magistrate Judge Kendra Klump’s chambers do not have an assigned courtroom, she uses the courtrooms of other judges instead.
District Judge Matthew Brookman and Senior District Judge Richard Young share a courtroom in Evansville, where they, along with Magistrate Judge Crystal Wildeman, also borrow other judges’ spaces or share a visiting space in Indianapolis when their case assignments bring them there.
“Our judges are very understanding and flexible when it comes to courtroom sharing—every one of them has loaned or borrowed a courtroom at some point,” Lynch said.
Controlling spending
The CASE Act is just one part of the growing trend to slash government spending this year.
On Jan. 20, just hours after President Donald Trump took office, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, was established by executive order to “maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”
DOGE claims to have saved an estimated $206 billion through various contract cancellations, improper payment deletions, programmatic changes and workforce reductions.
The department, which was led by SpaceX owner Elon Musk for about four months, faced scrutiny after several news outlets found it had exaggerated its savings.•
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