Senate Earmarks $103 Million for Courthouse : Politics: Funds to begin work on downtown Santa Ana federal facility still $65 million short of estimated cost.

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday set aside $103 million to begin construction of a new federal courthouse and office building in downtown Santa Ana.

The figure represents a $19-million increase over the courthouse funding approved last month by the Senate Appropriations Committee. But it still falls $65 million short of the total estimated cost of the 348,000-square-foot facility, which is to be built on a 3.9-acre parcel of city-owned land in the Santa Ana Civic Center.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, an Appropriations Committee member, said she has been assured that the balance of the money will be appropriated next year. In the meantime, a Feinstein aide said, the Senate appropriation will permit the General Services Administration to proceed with excavation of the site.

Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), a leading backer of the courthouse project and Feinstein’s potential rival in her reelection bid next year, earlier had criticized the Senate for failing to secure more money for the project.

In an interview last month, Cox suggested that construction would not begin until all the money needed for the project had been appropriated. Cox was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday.

The House of Representatives has already appropriated $148 million for the courthouse, $20 million short of its estimated $168-million cost. The difference between the House and Senate figures will be resolved by a joint conference committee.

Funds for the project were included in a $22.3-billion appropriations bill for Treasury, Postal Service and general government operations in fiscal 1994, which begins Oct. 1.

Feinstein has argued previously that full funding for the courthouse is not needed in 1994 because the General Services Administration will not be ready to proceed with construction until the following year.

On Tuesday, a Feinstein aide said the $103 million would be more than adequate to permit the GSA to award an excavation contract sometime next spring. A separate construction contract could follow after Congress completes the courthouse funding in fiscal 1995, the aide said.

Orange County has no permanent federal courthouse, although a handful of judges sit in temporary, 30,000-square-foot quarters in the Civic Center. Cox and other local lawmakers have argued that that the Los Angeles County courthouse, where many Orange County cases are referred, is choked with litigation, and too far away.

With a population of 2.4 million, Orange County deserves its own federal bench, the congressmen say.