New bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate on Thursday would transfer the maintenance and management of dozens of federal courthouses from the executive branch’s General Services Administration to the judiciary itself.
The proposal followed complaints from across the federal courts that G.S.A. was a bad landlord, slow to make repairs even when the health of courthouse employees was at stake.
Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois and the bill’s lead sponsor, said the purpose of the proposed law was to “ensure our federal courthouses remain safe, secure, and operating effectively for those who work in and visit them,” and that Congress would retain the “ability to oversee and improve the judiciary’s efforts.”
The bill was cosponsored by two Republicans, Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Senator John Boozman of Arkansas. “The judiciary is a separate part of government,” Mr. Cramer said in a statement. “Just like Congress, it should not be subservient to executive branch management.”
The bill would establish a temporary pilot program, under which a newly created Judiciary Buildings Service would handle courthouse maintenance and repairs in up to 10 of the country’s 94 judicial districts. The director of the courts’ Administrative Office, which coordinates operations across the judiciary, would take on “jurisdiction, custody, and control” of the properties.
Congress and the Government Accountability Office would oversee the program, which would automatically begin to expire after seven years unless Congress voted to extend it.
One 83-year-old federal judge has said that he believes he contracted Legionnaires’ disease from brushing his teeth using water from the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, the largest federal courthouse in Illinois. Michael Tammero, a G.S.A. spokesman, had previously called allegations that the water at Dirksen contributed to the judge’s illness “unsupported medical speculation.”
In a letter sent last week to Edward C. Forst, who heads the G.S.A., Mr. Durbin and Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, said the agency’s timeline for fixing the water system at the Dirksen courthouse was “unacceptable.” They characterized G.S.A.’s approach as “denigration of the judiciary and degradation of court facilities.”
The cost of overdue repairs at G.S.A.-managed courthouses has reached more than $8.3 billion, according to the agency. Mr. Forst has argued that the G.S.A. needs more authority to undertake major projects without going through a lengthy congressional approval process, and that courthouse repair costs are disproportionately large compared to the $1.3 billion that the judiciary pays G.S.A. annually for rent and other services.
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