Biden’s budget proposal to include funding for OKC court building repair What would the budget proposal fix?
President Joe Biden’s proposed budget for 2024 includes tens of millions of dollars for upgrades to an Oklahoma City federal courthouse and historic post office.
The Biden administration announced Tuesday that the White House budget includes funding for improvements to the William J. Holloway Jr. U.S. Courthouse and the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse in Oklahoma City.
The courthouse serves the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma and the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Nearby, the historic U.S. Post Office and Courthouse once held the postal service on its first floor and the federal courts on the second, but now serves as the district’s bankruptcy court.
How much money might be spent on the courthouse?
According to the General Services Administration, more than $65.9 million could be set for a project that would finish repairing and improving the William J. Holloway Jr. U.S. Courthouse and the historic U.S. Post Office.
The proposed expenditure would complete the second part of a two-phase plan encompassing the courthouse and the post office that began in recent years, said Tina Jaegerman, regional public affairs officer for the General Services Administration.
Alterations would include interior construction; plumbing; upgrades to the building envelope; replacement of windows, HVAC and mechanical systems, and fire and life safety systems; and additional site work.
Past project proposals from the General Services Administration in 2020 provided justifications for the funding, which said the improvements would rectify interior damage and bring the buildings up to code compliance.
Agency officials also said Biden’s proposed budget included provisions that would guarantee full access to the Federal Buildings Fund but also preserve the ability of Congress to decide and authorize investments.