Improving Access to Our Courts Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, the Improving Access to Our Courts Act would amend title 28 of the United States Code to provide an additional place for holding court in the Western District of Texas and in the Western District of Washington.

These additional courthouses are needed to better serve the 12.2 million people who call these two districts home.

Both districts are comprised of wide areas of land. The Western District of Washington takes up half of Washington State and the Western District of Texas covers the western 68 counties of the State, which is over 92,000 square miles and is so large that it is in two separate time zones.

Consequently, the citizens of these two districts often need to travel for hours to access the courthouse doors. On paper, our basic rights do not change depending on where we live, yet in practice that is exactly what is happening.

It makes no sense that just because someone lives in a more rural, expansive district, they should incur dramatically increased travel time and administrative costs to seek justice. Adding courthouses is a small step in the right direction toward making the judicial system accessible to all Americans no matter where they live.

The Judicial Conference has recommended the addition of these two courthouses, a recommendation that grew even more urgent after the Western District of Washington's Bellingham facility had part of its roof collapse.

This country cannot have a flourishing justice system when its buildings are falling apart, its staff are underpaid, and there is a perpetual shortage of judges to fairly administer the laws.

This bill will not fix all of these problems, but it will take a small step to help millions of Americans gain equal access to justice, and I think it is a step worth taking.

We previously passed the House version of this legislation, and I look forward to once again voting in favor of this important legislation, this time to send it to President Biden's desk.

Finally, I thank Representatives Tony Gonzales, Rick Larsen, and Suzan DelBene in the House and Senators Cornyn, Murray, Cruz, and Cantwell in the Senate for working on a bipartisan basis to introduce this legislation to improve the lives of the residents of Texas and Washington.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation makes a modest but important change to help improve access to justice for millions of Americans. I thank the sponsors, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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