Bipartisan bill brings San Antonio a step closer to landing new federal courthouse

The long anticipated construction of a new federal courthouse in San Antonio may finally be closer to dirt-turning. A bipartisan group of San Antonio lawmakers has introduced new legislation that would provide emergency funding from fiscal year 2016 for the construction of a new federal courthouse for the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.

The Alamo City delegation, which includes Republican Congressmen Will Hurd and Lamar Smith, as well as Democratic Congressmen Henry Cuellar, Lloyd Doggett and Joaquin Castro, has filed House Resolution 3612. If passed, the legislation would require an emergency budgetary designation by Congress for the new structure in a judicial district that covers nearly 92,000 square miles and has divisions in several Texas cities, including Austin, Del Rio, El Paso, Midland, Pecos and Waco.

San Antonio's long wait for a new federal courthouse may be nearing an end if a… more

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In 2008, I reported that officials with the city of San Antonio had indicated that the U.S. General Services Administration selected the former San Antonio Police Department headquarters site at 214 W. Nueva for a new federal courthouse that would span some 375,000 square feet and accommodate the expansion and security needs of the Fifth Circuit Courts in the Western District of Texas.

More than seven years later, the site still sits empty.

San Antonio’s current John H. Wood, Jr. U.S. Courthouse is located in a structure that was built nearly a half-century ago for the 1968 World’s Fair.

Cuellar said emergency appropriations are warranted for a new courthouse because the current structure has “numerous problems.” He cited water and air quality, as well as space limitations and safety concerns as some of the problems plaguing the existing facility.

Castro said the Wood Courthouse “has languished on a wait list, stalling new construction” for too long.

Hurd was more critical, noting in a statement, “It’s outrageous that some of the most violent drug trafficking and organized crime cases in Texas are being tried in a 1960s movie theater.”

H.R. 3612 calls for the new courthouse to be built on the same city-owned land which previously housed the San Antonio Police Department headquarters. The site would be acquired by the GSA through a land swap with the city.