Federal Judiciary Pays About $1 Billion a Year in Rent to GSA
Federal courts do not own their buildings and do not currently measure how much office space they use, according to a new GAO report discussed in an interview
By AXY Government Desk ·
Key points
- The federal judiciary pays about a billion dollars a year in rent but owns none of the courthouses it uses; GSA manages the federally owned space.
- Half of the rent goes to GSA for federally owned space and half goes to GSA to pay commercial leases, according to Marroni.
- The courts are not currently measuring space utilization, and administrative space has been largely flat since 2021 after a roughly 3 percent reduction since the 2010s.
The federal judiciary pays about a billion dollars a year in rent, yet the courts do not own the courthouses they work in, and they are not currently measuring how much of their office space is actually used. That gap is at the center of a new Government Accountability Office report on federal real property and the judiciary. David Marroni discussed the report in an interview on The Federal Drive with host Terry Gerton.
Marroni put the ownership issue plainly. "The judiciary doesn't actually own its courthouses, its buildings. It's federally owned space that GSA manages," he said. In practice, the courts occupy buildings that belong to the federal government, and a separate agency handles the property management behind them.
Who acts as the courts' landlord
The General Services Administration, known as GSA, is the federal agency that manages much of the government's buildings and leased space. Marroni said GSA essentially functions as a landlord for the judiciary. For a tenant that does not own its property, that role matters a great deal. The landlord decides how buildings are maintained, what space is leased and on what terms, and the tenant pays for the arrangement.
The scale of that arrangement is what caught Gerton's attention. She noted that the judiciary is one of the largest users of federal real estate, and Marroni agreed that its real property footprint is large. He said the courts pay about a billion dollars a year in rent, and that they are, as Gerton put it, not currently measuring how much of that space they use.
Where the rent money goes
Gerton asked how that billion dollars is distributed. Marroni said all of the money goes to rent. About half goes to GSA for federally owned space, and about half goes to GSA to pay commercial leases. Commercial leases are contracts with private property owners, so a share of the court system's rent flows to private landlords rather than to the federal government's own buildings.
Gerton also raised the idea that about half of the billion dollars is spent on courthouses. Marroni's answer focused on the split between federally owned space and commercial leases, and then on a category of space inside courthouses that is easy to overlook.
Administrative space is the focus of the report
Marroni explained that a courthouse holds more than courtrooms. It also contains administrative space, which he described as essentially like office space. That includes conference rooms, meeting rooms and places where clerks work. This administrative space was the focus of the GAO report.
That focus makes sense for the people who work in these buildings. Clerks, court staff and the people who support judges need desks, meeting rooms and workspace. The question for taxpayers is whether that space is sized to match how it is used. A conference room that sits empty most days still costs rent if the government is paying for it under a lease or as part of federally owned property.
Why utilization is the missing number
Utilization is a measure of how much of a space is actually used compared with how much is available. Federal government agencies in the executive branch are increasingly required to measure occupancy and utilization of their offices, Gerton said. The judiciary, which is a separate branch of government, is not subject to the same requirements.
Marroni confirmed that the judiciary is not currently measuring utilization. He said the courts are part of the broader federal problem with government real estate, and that they are right alongside other parts of the government in having a large footprint. That answer matters because it places the courts inside the same challenge of getting a handle on federal buildings that agencies across the government face.
Without utilization data, it is hard to tell whether a given office, meeting room or clerk's workspace is needed, underused or could be given up. Analysts who study federal property often point to that kind of data as the starting point for any decision about shrinking or consolidating space. This could mean the courts face more questions from oversight bodies about how they make those decisions.
The no net new policy and the space reductions
Marroni described a set of efforts that have been underway since 2013 to optimize the courts' space. The goal, he said, is to have the space needed to carry out the courts' mission and no more. One of the main tools is what the report calls a no net new policy.
Under that policy, the courts are not supposed to add any new space without reducing an equivalent amount of space in the same year. The word net is the key. The overall total is meant to stay flat or fall, rather than grow, even when a new courthouse or office is needed. Marroni said the courts have reduced their space since the 2010s by about 3 percent, which he described as their target.
He also said administrative space has remained largely flat since 2021. That is a different picture from the overall reduction. A 3 percent cut meets a stated target, but a flat trend in administrative space since 2021 suggests the reductions have not gone much further in the category where clerks, meeting rooms and offices sit. Whether that is enough depends on how much of that space is actually used, which is the data the courts are not currently collecting.
The question Gerton left open
Gerton closed with the question that goes to the heart of the issue. If the courts are not tracking space utilization, how do they know how much space they need, and which space they should give up? The material available for this report ends with that question, so the judiciary's answer is not part of this account.
That gap is worth keeping in view. The no net new policy and the roughly 3 percent reduction describe what the courts have done. The missing utilization data limits what anyone outside the system can say about whether those steps are well aimed.
What to watch next
Several developments will show whether this issue moves beyond a report and an interview. The first is whether the judiciary begins measuring utilization of its administrative space, which would give it a basis for deciding what to keep and what to cut. The second is how the courts and GSA coordinate on leases and federally owned buildings, since GSA controls much of the property the courts use.
The third is whether the GAO's findings draw a response from Congress or from the courts themselves. The full recommendations of the report were not included in the material for this article, so it is not clear what specific steps the report calls for. Readers who want those details should consult the GAO report directly.
For now, the basic facts are clear. The federal courts pay about a billion dollars a year in rent for space they do not own. They have cut their space by about 3 percent since the 2010s under a no net new policy, and their administrative space has been largely flat since 2021. They are not yet measuring how much of that space is used, and that is the number the next round of decisions is likely to depend on.
Questions and answers
How much rent does the federal judiciary pay?
David Marroni said the judiciary pays about a billion dollars a year in rent. He said about half goes to GSA for federally owned space and about half goes to GSA to pay commercial leases.
Does the federal judiciary own its courthouses?
No. Marroni said the judiciary does not own its courthouses or buildings. He said it is federally owned space that GSA manages, and GSA functions as the judiciary's landlord.
Why is the judiciary not measuring office space use?
Marroni confirmed the judiciary is not currently measuring utilization, and Gerton noted that the judiciary is not subject to the occupancy measurement requirements that executive branch agencies are increasingly facing.
What is the no net new policy for federal courts?
Under the policy, courts are not supposed to add new space without reducing an equivalent amount of space in the same year. Marroni said the courts have cut their space by about 3 percent since the 2010s, which he described as their target.
Topics: Federal judiciary, General Services Administration, Government Accountability Office, Federal courthouses, Federal real estate, Office space utilization, Terry Gerton
Sources: Federal News Network
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