Bonner seeking courthouse money
Mobile Press-Register April 14, 2008
U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile, hopes to use his new post on the House Appropriations Committee to push some money to a long-sought new federal courthouse in Mobile.
At a subcommittee hearing April 3, Bonner noted that the Bush administration had proposed no funding for the project in the 2009 fiscal year that begins in October, even though it ranks among the judiciary's top five priorities.
"We're concerned about the lack of ability to get this project off of the wish list into reality," he told
Laurita Doan , head of the U.S. General Services Administration, the lead federal agency for construction projects.
In a prepared response to follow-up questions from the Press-Register, Bonner called the existing John Archibald Campbell Federal Courthouse "unsafe and inadequate," and said he intends to seek $181.5 million "to complete funding for construction" on top of $11.3 million that has already been approved.
"While funding is certainly not assured in what may prove to be a challenging budget year," he said, "I will continue to support this much needed project."