44,000 hours? For one individual? What are they doing, transcribing with quill pens, and they first have to capture and pluck a bunch of geese in order to get the quills? Even that shouldn't take anything like that long. I can't see any way that such a number is justifiable; they should certainly be force to justify it.
I have paid a small five-figure sum defending myself against various contempt of cop charges (multiple alleged violations over the years); my last arrest was for 0.009 grams [†] of marijuana (literally a flake of potleaf), wherein my Texas defense attorney [0] laid it out clearly: "if the marijuana laws in Texas changed, *I'd be out of the job..!" (boo hoo).
[†] same Class B Misdemeanor for all possession between 0-1.9999 ounces
[0] former Travis County prosecutor, of course; at the time, this should not even have resulted in an arrest ("arrest and release" was the county policy), but Rollingwood gonna Rollingwood (the wealthiest suburb of Austin)