The U.S. judiciary is bracing for a gut punch. A proposed Republican-led House budget threatens to slash deep into the nation’s ability to provide court-appointed defense—potentially eliminating over 600 jobs in the federal public defender system and freezing pay for private lawyers on court panels for more than two months.
In a stark internal memo dated July 25, Judge Robert Conrad, head of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, laid out a grim forecast for the year ahead. Despite a headline 3.5% increase to the judiciary’s overall budget, the proposal still falls nearly \$200 million short of what the courts say is necessary to meet their constitutional obligations.
At the center of the crisis is the Defender Services program—the backbone of legal representation for people too poor to afford an attorney. Though the proposal boosts its funding to \$1.57 billion, that’s still \$196 million shy of what’s needed. Conrad warned that the shortfall would force the system to either shed hundreds of public defense positions or delay payments to Criminal Justice Act (CJA) panel attorneys by a record 77 days—just weeks after the judiciary admitted the fund had already run dry, freezing payouts for three months.
“This kind of deficit isn’t just about numbers on a page—it threatens the very foundation of the constitutional right to counsel,” Conrad wrote. He didn’t mince words: the cuts would cripple the ability of federal defenders to meet their court-mandated responsibilities under *Gideon v. Wainwright*, the Supreme Court’s landmark 1963 ruling guaranteeing representation for the accused.
Meanwhile, the full House Appropriations Committee is holding off final consideration of the bill until at least September. The Senate has yet to reveal its version.
The clock is ticking. The next fiscal year begins October 1. For hundreds of defenders and thousands of indigent defendants, what happens in Washington over the next few weeks could determine whether justice shows up—or stays locked outside the courtroom doors.
