Courthouse Affordability and Space Efficiency Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. SHREVE. 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.

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