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Responsible Helium Administration and Stewardship Act

Floor Speech

Date: April 26, 2013
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Business and Consumers Natural Resources

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Mr. HIGGINS. I thank my friend and colleague for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank Congressman Charlie Dent and Congresswoman Esty for working together on this bipartisan amendment. Our amendment would ensure that the Bureau of Land Management implements free market reforms while respecting its contractual obligations. High-tech manufacturing, MRIs, nuclear power reactors, and a host of critical national defense applications require helium.

Congress asked American companies to partner with the Federal Government to build the infrastructure needed to extract, store, and refine and bring to market this valuable domestic resource. Now that the infrastructure is built out, this legislation seeks to break our contracts with those partners. This is unfair and unnecessary.

Our amendment simply affirms that the Bureau of Land Management will honor its existing contracts that are set forth to expire over the next couple of years. I urge a "yes'' vote on this bipartisan amendment to demonstrate that we can reform our helium policy in a way that respects the agreements and contracts we've made.

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