Courthouse Affordability and Space Efficiency Act of 2025

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3426) to amend title 40, United States Code, to limit the construction of new courthouses under certain circumstances, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material into the Record on H.R. 3426, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3426, the CASE Act, limits the size of courthouses, by directing the General Services Administration, or GSA, to only build new courthouses that accommodate courtroom sharing.

Specifically, the CASE Act codifies the judiciary's current courtroom sharing policies for magistrate, senior, and bankruptcy judges.

For large courthouses, the legislation also directs there can only be two courtrooms for every three district court judges.

The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, on a bipartisan basis, has conducted oversight of the Federal courthouse construction program across multiple administrations.

Historically, courthouses have been significantly overbuilt, costing the American taxpayers billions of dollars to build, operate, and maintain. In 2010, the GAO, Government Accountability Office, found that courthouses built from 2000 to 2010 were overbuilt by 3.56 million square feet, costing an additional $800 million in addition to $51 million annually to operate and maintain.

Despite oversight, and even at one point a moratorium on authorizing new courthouses, the courts issued an updated courthouse design guide in 2021 that did just the opposite of consolidating the judiciary's space.

A GAO review of the updated design guide revealed the changes in the design guide actually increase space in courthouses by 6 percent and will cost the taxpayer 12 percent more. The Government Accountability Office found one of the key driving forces in the overbuilding of courthouses to be the overprojection of future judges.

Proposals for new courthouses are driven not by building condition, security, or even the need for more space for current judges, but by the court's projection of future judges. The court's own methodology for prioritizing the need for a new courthouse, for example,

relegated security concerns to just 10 percent of a weighted formula, but in contrast courtrooms and chambers account for 50 percent.

In reality, the courts' projections have been shown to be wrong. As a result, the taxpayer pays for space that sits vacant.

The CASE Act directs GSA, which builds and owns Federal courthouses, to only design and build courthouses that strictly comply with courtroom sharing requirements.

The committee has reported out similar language in the past and a hearing before the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management earlier this year on courthouses reinforced the need for this legislation.

H.R. 3426, as amended, also incorporates reasonable revisions recommended by the courts.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Shreve) for his leadership on this legislation and the gentlewoman from D.C. (Ms. Norton) for working on this bipartisan bill.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Shreve).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, H.R. 3426 as amended, will rightsize Federal courthouses, reducing unneeded space and potentially saving the taxpayer billions of dollars.

The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure passed reforms to begin the process of rightsizing the Federal Government's real estate portfolio last Congress. This legislation continues that work of ensuring a more efficient use of taxpayer resources.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support of H.R. 3426, as amended, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I support H.R. 3426, the Courthouse Affordability and Space Efficiency Act of 2025, or CASE Act.

I thank my colleague from, I almost want to say Louisiana because of his familial ties to the naming of Shreveport, but my across-the-hall neighbor in the Cannon Building, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Shreve), I thank him for his leadership and support on this issue.

This bill develops space-sharing guidelines to prevent overbuilding of new Federal courthouses. As a former Department of Justice staffer and a former Federal law clerk myself, I have had the privilege to see many beautiful courthouses and courtrooms across this country, and so I have seen how empty and underutilized many of those spaces are.

By implementing these standards into the design guide for Federal courthouses, the GSA will be able to reduce construction costs and ensure that existing spaces in courthouse complexes are being fully utilized.

Over the last 45 years, the GAO has compiled a large body of work on Federal courthouse construction, much of it at the request of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

GAO has found that the judiciary has requested and received courthouses that are larger than the size authorized by Congress, more expensive to build, and more expensive to operate than Congress was aware of.

The judiciary has tried, however, to meet the concerns of Congress over the last several years. Recently, the judicial conference revised its courtroom allocation planning assumptions. New courtroom construction projects are to be designed to facilitate courtroom sharing for senior district judges, magistrate judges, and bankruptcy judges.

There is still some cause for concern. This legislation, by establishing sharing guidelines for active district court judges, will certainly help.

I support this legislation because this is about making the American taxpayer dollar go further and making more sensible investments. I urge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I support H.R. 3426, the CASE Act, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, it sounds like my case in salesmanship is going to be modest with the support that this act enjoys from colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

I am someone who has built a business from the ground up, including several million square feet of space. It is a reality that to construct space is one thing; the carry cost of maintaining it is quite another.

There is general recognition increasingly within this Congress that we have more space than our Federal Government needs. That is certainly the case at the courthouse level in our Federal courthouses and the supporting office space.

My legislation, the CASE Act, directs the GSA to construct the courthouse space that is necessary and no more. I worked with the U.S. courts on this bill. The resulting legislation is straightforward. It is clearly bipartisan, and it is commonsensical.

The CASE Act codifies the court's sharing policies for our magistrates, seniors, and bankruptcy judges. For the larger courthouses, it limits the number of courtrooms to two for every three judges.

The bill codifies this administration's approach to rightsizing our Federal Government. That is something that we share in common, both sides of the aisle, toward being good stewards of our taxpayer dollars.

The GSA, as was noted, is still forced to build to standards that account for potential judges, despite Congress not having authorized any additional judgeships over the past 30 years. This act is a move toward making taxpayer dollars go further.

I thank my colleague, Ms. Norton, for joining me on this legislation and for her good work on this issue. I urge passage.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 3426 and the papers with respect to H.R. 3426 be returned to the House of Representatives at their request.

Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration.