Funding and Budget – Annual Report 2024

Fiscal Year 2025 Funding Request for the Judiciary

In February 2024, the Judiciary’s fiscal year (FY) 2025 initial budget request to Congress was for $9.36 billion in discretionary appropriations. In June, the Judiciary submitted a budget reestimate reflecting updated requirements based on its final FY 2024 enacted appropriations funding levels. The revised request was for $9.22 billion in discretionary appropriations, a 6.8 percent ($586 million) increase over FY 2024 and $142 million below the initial request.

Three-quarters of the requested increase was necessary to maintain current operations, including higher costs for staffing, rent payments to the General Services Administration, ongoing IT initiatives, and goods and services. The remaining quarter share addressed priority needs, such as judicial security protections in a backdrop of increasing threats to judges and courthouses; IT improvements including cybersecurity protections and infrastructure modernization; and additional staff in clerks of court, probation and pretrial services, and federal defender offices to address workload needs.

The FY 2025 appropriations process was constrained by agreements made during Congress’ 2023 debt ceiling negotiations, which placed limits on federal spending for fiscal years 2024 and 2025. Judiciary funding is included in the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill annually. The House version of the bill, approved in committee in June, provided the Judiciary with $8.8 billion in discretionary appropriations, a 2 percent ($174 million) increase above the FY 2024 enacted level and $412 million below the Judiciary’s FY 2025 June request. The Senate version, approved in committee in August, provided the Judiciary with $8.82 billion in discretionary appropriations, a 2.2 percent ($190 million) increase over FY 2024 and $396 million below the Judiciary’s June request.

In November, the Judiciary sent Congress a second budget reestimate for consideration during House and Senate conference discussions of a final FSGG bill. The Judiciary sought $9.02 billion in discretionary appropriations, a 4.5 percent ($391 million) increase over FY 2024 and $195 million less than the earlier budget reestimate.

In a letter accompanying the revised request, Judge Amy J. St. Eve, chair of the Judicial Conference Budget Committee, and Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr., Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO), wrote of their concern about the committees’ funding levels.

“These shortfalls have significant real-world effects,” the judges wrote. “Without sufficient staffing, the judicial branch will be unable to provide the full complement of expected public services, ensure court-appointed counsel for all eligible defendants, or properly supervise the thousands of additional incarcerated individuals who are eligible to be released in FY 2025 due to recent changes to the sentencing guidelines. At the same time, the branch will be unable to make the investments needed to properly secure courthouse facilities, personnel, and IT assets despite an environment of increasing threats.”

The 12 annual appropriations bills for FY 2025 were not enacted into law before the October 1, 2024 start of the fiscal year. An initial continuing resolution was enacted to keep the government operating through December 20, 2024, pending enactment of full-year appropriations bills. The continuing resolution was then extended to March 14, 2025.

Highlights of the Judiciary’s revised appropriations request included the following:

• $6.23 billion for the Salaries and Expenses account would maintain current operations across the courts, including standard pay and non-pay adjustments, and allow for additional hiring, primarily probation office staff needed to respond to an August 2023 decision by the U.S. Sentencing Commission that will result in the need to process more than 18,700 sentence reduction motions and to supervise thousands of incarcerated individuals eligible for release. The updated request also provided for a range of necessary IT requirements in the courts, including $122 million for cybersecurity and system modernization initiatives.
• $1.58 billion for the Defender Services account would ensure that the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of the right to counsel is met. Federal defender offices could continue filling vacancies and hire for critical new positions. Requested funds also would provide an inflationary adjustment to hourly rates for panel attorneys, who are defense attorneys appointed by the courts.
• $797 million for the Court Security account to ensure the safety of judges, court employees, jurors, attorneys, defendants, and the public in federal court facilities. The funding would allow for continued implementation of the Daniel Anderl Act to improve the safety of judges and qualifying family members. It also would pay for digital external camera systems in vulnerable locations and for an increase in the number of court security officers’ work hours.

Fiscal Year 2024 Funding for the Judiciary

In March 2023, the President signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, which included FY 2024 funding for the Judiciary. The legislation provided $8.6 billion in discretionary appropriations, an increase of 2 percent ($169 million) over the FY 2023 level.

The following are highlights of the Judiciary’s financial plan for 2024, which included, in addition to appropriations, funds derived from some fee collections and available balances:

• $7 billion for the Salaries and Expenses account, which included both mandatory and discretionary funds to provide for court salaries and general operating expenses. The plan provided $144.8 million for the Judiciary’s multi-year cybersecurity and IT modernization plan. Among the projects were implementation of multi-factor authentication, a transition to an enterprise-wide telecommunications and data center operation, and modernization of multiple systems, including financial management, eVoucher, and the Probation and Pretrial Services Automated Case Tracking system.
• $1.5 billion for the Defender Services account, including salaries and operating expenses for federal defender organizations and payments to Criminal Justice Act (CJA) panel attorneys. Panel attorney hourly rates were increased consistent with the government’s Employment Cost Index to remain at the statutory maximum ($220 in capital cases and $172 in non-capital cases), effective January 1, 2024. Also included was $9.9 million for the FY 2024 portion of a multi-year IT infrastructure improvement project.
• $832.6 million for the Court Security account, which included $54.1 million for courthouse hardening to protect court facilities from attempts to disrupt the judicial process. (Congress provided a total of $112.5 million in supplemental funding in FY 2023 for courthouse hardening.) Also included were $530.9 million for court security officers, $90.5 million for Federal Protective Service-provided security, $151.8 million for security systems and equipment, and $15.8 million for the Vulnerability Management Program, which helps judges and their family members identify active and potential threats to their security.
• $68.5 million for the Fees of Jurors and Commissioners account, allowing the Judiciary to fund requirements for the petit juror and grand juror needs in FY 2024.

Strategic Budget Initiative

The multi-year Strategic Budget Initiative is designed to mitigate the impact of increasing Judiciary financial requirements that are outpacing congressional funding. This fiscal stewardship effort began in 2022 with committees of the Judicial Conference of the United States, the Judiciary’s policy-making body, suggesting initiatives for consideration. The Budget Committee, the Judicial Branch Committee, and the nine committees with spending authority, in coordination with the Executive Committee, were involved. Throughout 2023 and 2024, judges on the committees analyzed information, reviewed proposals, and solicited stakeholders’ feedback. Proposals were to be sent to the Judicial Conference for consideration.