House committee expected to approve funding for nearly $133M federal courthouse in SA

A multimillion-dollar plan for a new federal courthouse is expected to approved tomorrow.

The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will address on Wednesday plans by the U.S. General Services Administration to construct a new federal courthouse in San Antonio for the Western District of Texas. U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, expects that the committee will approve the $132.6 million downtown project.

Plans for the proposed courthouse, which would be constructed on the site of the former San Antonio Police headquarters on West Nueva Street, include eight courtrooms and accommodations for 13 judges. The approximately 305,000-square-foot facility would allow for the consolidation of all district court and U.S. Marshals Service space in the new structure.

As a member of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, Cuellar helped secure appropriations for the San Antonio project in last year’s government funding package. Wednesday’s authorization by the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will mark the go-ahead for the beginning of construction on the new courthouse, as the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has already granted authorization of these funds.

Under federal budgeting guidelines, funds must both be authorized and appropriated by separate committees in both the House and Senate before they can be disbursed.

“It’s been a long process that started years ago,” said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, who has worked with city and federal leaders to gain funding support for a new courthouse. “A lot of people have spent a lot of time on this.”

The current John H. Wood Jr. U.S. Courthouse, which is located in a former theater building constructed for the 1968 World’s Fair, is nearly 50 years old. Local leaders and federal officials, too, contend that it is outdated and unsafe.

The construction of a new courthouse would likely free up valuable land at Hemisfair, and could also stimulate additional development around the planned structure near San Pedro Creek.

San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor said there has been bipartisan support in Washington, D.C. for a new federal courthouse in the Alamo City.