Federal courts ask for emergency funding to temper mandatory budget courts

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The Judicial Update

May 21, 2013

National: The Judicial Conference of the United States, a body created by Congress and tasked with making policy guidelines for administration of U.S. courts, recently sent a letter to the White House Office of Management and Budget asking for emergency funding. Judge Julia Gibbons, chair of the Judicial Conference’s budget committee, and Judge Thomas Hogan, the organization's secretary, asked the OMB for an additional $73 million.[1][2] The money would go towards offsetting approximately $350 million that the courts are losing to the sequester—the total amount of which must be absorbed by the U.S. court system within the remaining six months of the fiscal year.[1][2]

In the letter, the judges urge an emergency designation, stating that:

“ The judiciary is confronting an unprecedented fiscal crisis that could seriously compromise the constitutional mission of the United States courts.[1][3] ”

They also connect the request to the Boston Marathon bombing trial—writing that a part of the total sum would go to expected defense representation and expert costs related to “high-threat trials, including high-threat cases in New York and Boston”, and comment that absent the sequestration, the Defender Services program would have absorbed those costs without a need for supplemental funding.[1]

According to Karen Redmond, a spokeswoman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, many courts are already furloughing staff, and will have to eliminate about 500 jobs in clerks’ offices and probation and pretrial services. More furloughs are anticipated for an additional 3,300 probation and pretrial services employees, as well as 1,700 at federal defender organizations. The judiciary will also have to cut or stop payments amounting to about $28 million to private attorneys who represent indigent defendants.[4] The Conference also wrote that $13 million of the requested funding is directly related to maintaining public safety, as it would prevent about half of the sequestration cuts which apply to drug testing, substance abuse programs, and mental health treatment for federal offenders.[1]

Federal agencies have been warning Congress and the public about the impact of sequestration cuts since last year. Currently, Congress, has restored funding cuts related to air travel, and has allowed the Justice Department to transfer funds in order to avoid furloughs for prison officers, FBI agents, prosecutors and other officials, but has not done similarly for the court system.[2]

“Unlike some executive branch entities, the judiciary has little flexibility to move funds between appropriation accounts to lessen the effect of sequestration [as] there are no lower-priority programs to reduce in order to transfer funds to other Judiciary accounts,” said the judges.[1]

The Conference has asked the White House to submit the request to Congress for approval promptly and without change.[1]

See also

Updates:

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Letter Sent to White House OMB by the Judicial Conference of the U.S.
  2. ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  3. ↑ Federal Times, "Courts seek $73M in emergency funding," May 15, 2013
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