US Courts Warn of Quick Cash Crisis if Government Shuts Down (1)

Federal courts will run out of money to continue fully operating as soon as next week if Congress fails to reach a spending deal to avoid a government shutdown, a top judiciary official warned.

Judge Robert Conrad, director of the Administrative Office of the US Courts, said in a Wednesday memo to judges and other court staff that the judiciary has the funds to sustain operations through Oct. 3 in the event of a federal funding lapse.

The judiciary has previously had enough funds to continue functioning for multiple weeks during shutdowns, including for the full five-week lapse that began in late 2018, Conrad wrote in the memo, obtained by Bloomberg Law.

However, “tight budgets” in recent years, including Congress’ decision to fund the judiciary at a flat rate this fiscal year, “have reduced the availability of carryforward and other balances needed to sustain paid operations during a lapse,” he wrote.

The administrative office “will make every effort to extend paid operations” through the pay period covering the first half of October, but “current carryforward projections are not sufficient to cover the entire pay period, and partial paychecks are not a viable option,” the memo says.

The dire warning to the judiciary comes as Congress nears a possible government shutdown at if lawmakers can’t agree on a measure to extend spending levels, once current funds expire Sept. 30.

Judiciary officials have previously urged Congress to give the courts more money next fiscal year to shore up security capabilities and increase funding for federal defenders.

The judiciary ran out of money in July to pay certain criminal defense lawyers, who represent low-income defendants, leaving those attorneys to foot the bill for cases until next fiscal year’s funding arrives.

The judiciary has also faced heightened security challenges, including an uptick in threats against federal judges and an escalated cyberattack on the judiciary’s case management system.

A proposed stopgap funding bill released this month by House Republicans would provide an additional $28 million in funding to protect Supreme Court justices, but no extra money to shore up security for other federal judges.

Judge Amy St. Eve, chair of the Judicial Conference’s budget committee, told reporters earlier this month the judiciary had requested supplemental funding in a potential stopgap bill for security, and insufficient funding for this purpose means that courthouse security systems and equipment “will suffer.”