Design standards adopted in 2021 for constructing new federal courthouses will significantly increase costs, according to a report released Friday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The judiciary drafted the guidelines without fully collaborating with key agencies, such as the General Services Administration (GSA), which oversees federal building construction.
The GAO estimated that applying the new standards to six recently or nearly completed courthouses, as well as one planned facility, would have increased their size by 5.8% and raised construction costs by 11.9%. Many of these revisions stemmed from efforts to enhance security, including providing more space for public, court staff, and prisoner circulation within the courthouses to ensure safer movement for judges and the public.
The report highlighted a sharp rise in threats against federal judges, which increased from 224 in fiscal year 2021 to 457 in fiscal year 2023, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. However, the GAO criticized the judiciary for not adequately addressing concerns raised by the GSA about the necessity of additional circulation space. The GSA argued that courthouses built under prior standards experienced no incidents of compromised security, urging reconsideration of the new guidelines.
The GAO warned that the updated standards will significantly impact future construction expenses, as well as the rent, operations, and maintenance costs for courthouses and other tenant agencies. “This decision will not only affect the construction costs for future courthouses but also significantly increase operational expenses,” the report stated.
U.S. District Judge Robert Conrad, who leads the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, defended the 2021 guidelines in a letter attached to the report, describing them as “modern and cost-effective.” However, he acknowledged the need to reevaluate the space-related changes implemented for safety reasons. The Administrative Office declined to provide additional comments.
The U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure requested the GAO report to assess the impact of the new standards on courthouse projects. This inquiry followed a significant period of spending on new courthouses, with the GSA allocating $1.9 billion to build 15 facilities from 2016 to 2022—an unusually high investment level, according to the GAO.
