Maricopa County taxpayers have spent $350 million on a court-appointed federal monitor, and the bill is still running. Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ) wants Congress to put a stop to it, and now he has a Senate ally to help.
U.S. Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) introduced the Monitor Accountability Act as a companion to legislation already passed by Biggs. The bill establishes binding rules for how federal courts appoint and oversee monitors, independent officials assigned to oversee government agencies under court-ordered consent decrees.
For Biggs, the urgency stems from what he describes as a cautionary tale unfolding in his own backyard. The court-appointed monitor overseeing Maricopa County has been in place for more than a decade and has cost local taxpayers an estimated $350 million with no end clearly in sight.
A similar arrangement in New Orleans ran for 13 years and cost roughly $100 million before the consent decree there finally expired late last year.
"The stories of Maricopa County and New Orleans are abusive and well-documented, showing how these monitors operate without oversight across America," Biggs said. "The destructive effects these monitors have on government budgets and public safety necessitate congressional action."
Biggs' Ally
Kennedy framed the problem in straightforward terms. "We basically let government contractors decide whether their own government contract keeps going," he said, adding that the legislation would introduce caps, time limits, and transparency to a system he described as operating on autopilot.
The bill includes several specific reforms, beginning with monitors who would serve five-year terms and could not be reappointed under the same court order.
Successive monitors could not come from the same law firm. Compensation would be capped, and courts would be encouraged to seek reduced-cost arrangements. The public would have an opportunity to weigh in before any monitor is appointed.
Crucially, the legislation would apply retroactively to any monitorship older than six years, a provision that would directly affect Maricopa County, triggering replacement of both the current monitor and the presiding judge.
“As I have said repeatedly, the destructive effects these monitors have on government budgets and public safety necessitate congressional action,” Biggs concluded. “I hope the Senate quickly passes this bill and sends it to the White House to be enacted into law.”
