Discretionary Appropriations Enacted by Congress for the Federal Judiciary (FY2023)

Discretionary Appropriations Enacted by Congress for the Federal Judiciary (FY2023)

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INSIGHTi

Discretionary Appropriations Enacted by
Congress for the Federal Judiciary (FY2023)
January 20, 2023
This Insight provides information related to FY2023 appropriations for the federal judiciary. Funds for the
judicial branch are included annually in the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG)
appropriations bill. The bill provides funding for the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts; judicial
administration; the U.S. Sentencing Commission; federal defender organizations; judicial security; and
juror fees and allowances.
Submission of FY2023 Budget Request and Final Enactment of FY2023 Regular
Appropriations for the Judiciary
The judiciary’s FY2023 budget request was submitted to Congress on March 28, 2022. By law, the
President includes, without change, the appropriations request submitted by the judiciary in the annual
budget submission to Congress.
The judiciary’s FY2023 budget request included $8.64 billion in discretionary funds, representing an
8.2% increase over the FY2022 enacted level of $7.99 billion in discretionary funds provided in the
FY2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 117-103).
The FY2023 budget request also included $767.2 million in mandatory appropriations used to meet the
constitutional and statutory obligations associated with paying the salaries and benefits of certain types of
judges and also to provide funds for judicial retirement accounts. Mandatory appropriations are not
included in the figures reported below.
The final FY2023 amount enacted by Congress for the federal judiciary was $8.46 billion in discretionary
funds and was included as part of Division E in the FY2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 117-
328).
Percentage of Judiciary’s FY2023 Request Enacted by Congress
Table 1 reports the amounts included in the federal judiciary’s FY2023 appropriations request and the
corresponding FY2023 amounts enacted by Congress. Table 1 does not include $19.4 million
appropriated in FY2022 by the Supreme Court Security Funding Act (P.L. 117-167) and which remains
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available for use through the end of FY2023. The table and subsequent calculations also do not include
$112.5 million in supplemental funds for court security provided by the Continuing Appropriations and
Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023 (P.L. 117-180).
The House-passed total appropriated for the judiciary was $8.45 billion while $8.48 billion was included
in the Senate majority-introduced bill (these figures are not included in Table 1). Ultimately Congress
enacted $8.46 billion, or 97.9%, of the judiciary’s FY2023 discretionary budget request of $8.64 billion.
The amount enacted by Congress represents a 5.9% increase over the discretionary appropriations amount
enacted for FY2022 (which was $7.99 billion).
Table 1. Judiciary Appropriations FY2023: Amounts Requested and Enacted
(in millions of dollars)
Account
FY2023 Request
FY2023 Enacted
Supreme Court (total)
$140.70
$138.80
Salaries and Expenses
$107.20
$109.55
Buildings and Grounds
$33.50
$29.25
Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
$36.40
$36.74
Court of International Trade
$21.40
$21.26
Courts of Appeals, District Courts, and
$8,276.80
$8,106.12
Other Judicial Services (total)
Salaries and Expenses
$5,973.30
$5,905.06
Defender Services
$1,461.70
$1,382.68
Court Security
$785.60
$750.16
Fees of Jurors and Commissioners
$45.70
$58.24
Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund
$10.50
$9.98
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
$111.30
$102.67
Federal Judicial Center
$33.50
$34.26
Sentencing Commission
$21.90
$21.64
TOTAL
$8,642.00
$8,461.49
Sources: FY2023 Congressional Budget Summary; H.R. 2617, FY2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 117-328).
Note: See text of Insight for description of supplemental appropriations not included in Table 1.
The enacted FY2023 amount for 9 of the 12 individual accounts is, in each case, at least 95% of the
judiciary’s FY2023 request for that particular account. For example, for the Court Security account,
Congress provided $750.16 million—representing 95.5% of the judiciary’s FY2023 request of $785.60
million.
The three accounts for which Congress appropriated less than 95% of the judiciary’s FY2023 request
were the Supreme Court—Building and Grounds (87.3% of the judiciary’s request was enacted),
Administrative Office of U.S. Courts (92.2%), and Defender Services (94.6%).
Altogether, for eight accounts, Congress appropriated less than the amount requested by the judiciary in
its FY2023 budget submission. Those accounts include the three accounts identified in the paragraph
above and the Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund (95.0%), Court Security (95.5%), Sentencing
Commission (98.8%), Salaries and Expenses—Courts of Appeals, District Courts, and Other Judicial
Services (98.9%), and Court of International Trade (99.3%) accounts.

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For four accounts, Congress appropriated more than the amount requested by the judiciary in its FY2022
budget submission: Fees of Jurors and Commissioners (+27.4% more than requested); Federal Judicial
Center (+2.3%); Salaries and Expenses—Supreme Court (+2.2%); and Court of Appeals for the Federal
Circuit (+0.9%).
Largest Discretionary Accounts for FY2023
Figure 1 shows, for the total discretionary amount enacted by Congress for FY2023, the percentage
breakdown of the total by the enacted amounts for the 12 judiciary accounts listed in Table 1 (excluding
the two total amounts reported in the table for the Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeals, District
Courts, and Other Judicial Services).
Of the appropriated funds enacted by Congress for the judiciary’s FY2023 budget, the greatest percentage
was for the Salaries and Expenses—Courts of Appeals, District Courts, and Other Judicial Services
account—representing 69.8% of the total enacted amount of $8.46 billion. The second-greatest
percentage was for the Defender Services account, representing 16.3% of the enacted amount. The
thirdgreatest percentage was for the Court Security account, representing 8.9% of the enacted amount.
Altogether, these three accounts represent 95.0% of the judiciary’s FY2023 budget enacted by Congress.
The amounts appropriated for the Salaries and Expenses—Supreme Court and Administrative Office of
the U.S. Courts accounts represent 1.3% and 1.2%, respectively, of the amount enacted by Congress for
FY2023. The remaining 2.5% of the FY2023 enacted amount was for the other seven accounts listed in
Table 1 (Building and Grounds—Supreme Court, Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Court of
International Trade, Fees of Jurors and Commissioners, Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund,
Federal Judicial Center, and Sentencing Commission).
Figure 1. Percentage of Enacted Discretionary Appropriations by Account
(FY2023)

Source: Congressional Research Service.
Note: Supplemental appropriations not included in Figure 1.

Author Information

Barry J. McMillion

Analyst in American National Government

Congressional Research Service
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