Hartford is on track to get a new federal courthouse with $135.5 million in funds added to the fiscal year 2021 omnibus spending package, the state’s congressional delegation announced this week.
The new courthouse would be built downtown and replace the Abraham Ribicoff Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse at 450 Main St., an aging and outdated structure that was No. 1 on the federal judiciary’s national priority list for replacement.
The General Services Administration estimates that $271.2 million is needed for the entire project, including buying a site and design and construction of a new courthouse.
“The 57-year-old U.S. District Courthouse in Hartford has simply outlived its sell-by date. There are major structural problems and its design makes providing court security very difficult. A new courthouse will bring judicial civil and criminal operations into the 21st century,” U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said.
The Hartford courthouse funding was added after Connecticut’s delegation noticed that Senate Republicans had bankrolled a federal courthouse project in Tennessee in the spending package. Hartford ranked first on the Federal Judiciary Courthouse Project Priorities list for the second year in a row and was left out in the first draft.
“When it became clear that the Hartford funding was in trouble of receiving nothing because of an egregious and frankly unfair earmark inserted by Senate Republicans, the delegation was able to come together to make it right to ensure Hartford received its fair share,” said U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-3rd District, incoming chair of the House Appropriations Committee.