New legislation to increase federal judicial staff has been introduced by the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts. This comes after the Senate approved a bill to add 66 new and temporary judgeships over the next ten years to help manage the heavy caseload for federal judges.

The bill, called the Judicial Understaffing Delays Getting Emergencies Solved Act of 2024, or the JUDGES Act, aims to make 63 federal judgeships permanent. The plan includes adding these judges in six phases from 2025 to 2035. In 2025, 11 judges are proposed to be added in six separate groups or stages.

Additionally, the proposal includes 3 temporary judgeships for Oklahoma, where federal courts are experiencing more cases. The increase in that state follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 McGirt v. Oklahoma decision over tribal reservation boundaries.

The proposed legislation also directs the U.S. Government Accountability Office to evaluate how efficiently federal courts operate and assess the need for detention space. The law also requires that the federal Judicial Conference publish its recommendations for judicial seats and how they are determined. Furthermore, new federal court locations are added in California, Texas, and Utah to improve access for larger districts.

As of June 30, 2024, there are 724,209 pending cases in U.S. federal district courts, which averages to 554 cases per judge. Congress has not approved new district court judgeships in over 20 years. The Senate passed the JUDGES Act in August, with an estimated cost of $251 million over ten years. The overall cost of the expanded federal judiciary is projected to be $6 billion for this fiscal year.

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