Mineral Resources: Meeting Federal Needs for Helium
RCED-93-1
Published: Oct 30, 1992. Publicly Released: Nov 18, 1992.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on: (1) actions taken by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Mines to meet the objectives of the Helium Act of 1960; (2) issues that should be considered when deciding how to meet federal needs for helium; and (3) three alternatives for meeting federal needs for helium.
Recommendations
Matter for Congressional Consideration
| Matter | Status | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Because conditions affecting the Bureau's helium program have changed since the Helium Act of 1960 was passed, Congress should reassess the act's objectives in order to decide how to meet current and foreseeable federal needs for helium. | P.L.104-273, October 9, 1996, terminated the federal helium program. | |
| Congress should cancel the debt in the Helium Fund because it is no longer realistic to expect the debt to be repaid by the statutory deadline of 1995 and because cancelling the debt would not adversely affect the federal budget. Cancelling the Bureau's helium program debt, however, would likely allow the Bureau to undercut private industry's refined helium prices, thereby adversely affecting the private helium-refining industry by taking away sales. Therefore, on the basis of a reassessment of the act's objectives, if Congress decides that fostering the private helium industry is still an objective, additional actions would be needed, such as requiring the Bureau to price its helium comparably to private prices or requiring all federal needs to be met by the Bureau but prohibiting the Bureau from selling helium to non-federal customers. | P.L.104-273, October 9, 1996, terminated the federal helium program. The law did not cancel the debt. But because there is no federal program anymore, there is no longer any concern about federal competition with private industry. |
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