Funding for Federal Courthouse Restored : Development: The $128-million project in Santa Ana is deemed a ‘priority.’ No further setbacks are expected.

The on-again, off-again funding for Orange County’s new federal courthouse has been resurrected and is not likely to face any more political setbacks, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) announced Friday.

The $128 million for the new federal building, to be built in the Santa Ana Civic Center, was restored this week when two key congressional committee chairmen deemed the project a “priority” and cleared the way for release of the final $25.2 million needed for construction.

Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido Jr. said Dornan’s announcement that funding had been restored was particularly satisfying given the budget-slashing mood of the new Republican Congress.

“In light of the (Orange County) bankruptcy . . . this is the first ray of sunshine that we have seen and was so badly needed,” Pulido said.

“This project has been alive and dead so many times, it’s had more lives than a cat,” he added, crediting Dornan and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) for keeping the project alive.

In addition to helping relieve a crowded federal court system, the courthouse is expected to help revitalize downtown Santa Ana. At one time, the cities of Irvine and Laguna Niguel competed with Santa Ana for the new federal building because of its potential as an economic generator.

Pre-construction work was placed on hold last September after the final $25.2 million was cut from the appropriations bill during a political fight on Capitol Hill between Democrats and Republicans.

Democrats, angered by Republican criticism that the budget contained “pork barrel” items, cut several projects in Republican districts, including the Orange County courthouse, which is to be named after former President Ronald Reagan.

Despite the setback, General Services Administrator Roger W. Johnson pledged to find the money from the federal agency’s buildings fund that had already been authorized for other projects.

Johnson, the former CEO of Western Digital Corp. in Irvine, subsequently requested that $144.6 million be reallocated for GSA projects, including the federal building.

In a letter this week to Johnson, the committee chairmen overseeing the funding--Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) and Rep. Jim Ross Lightfoot (R-Iowa)--singled out the Santa Ana courthouse for immediate action, stating that it is “time-sensitive and therefore should be considered a priority.”

Before the funding setback, construction was scheduled to begin in April, with the project to be completed in 1997.

Dornan was elated that the new Republican majority would mean full funding for the project in his district.

“I guess my Rodney Dangerfield life is over,” Dornan said of the newfound respect.

Dornan vowed that the Republicans would not engage in the same political gamesmanship that the Democrats employed last year when they cut funding for projects already underway. But at the same time, he charged that California’s Democratic senators--Feinstein and Barbara Boxer--”dropped the ball” when they allowed the Ronald Reagan Courthouse funds to be removed from the appropriations bill.

Using former Democratic President Harry S. Truman as an example, Dornan said the Republicans “would never take a courthouse in Missouri that was called the Harry Truman Courthouse, that was 90% completed, and play games with it.”

Dornan’s respect for Reagan has not been limited to ensuring that construction begins on the building that will bear the former President’s name.

Earlier this week, Dornan asked his colleagues to co-sign a letter to Navy Secretary John H. Dalton requesting that the Navy name its newest nuclear aircraft carrier the USS Ronald Reagan.

Dornan said it was only appropriate that Reagan’s name “adorn a ship that symbolizes America’s military prowess.”

The Orange County congressman said he was already looking forward to the christening ceremony. “I can already visualize it in my mind: Ronald Reagan watching it on closed-circuit television unless he’s healthy enough to go,” Dornan said.

Reagan disclosed last year that he has Alzheimer’s disease.