[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 738 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

  1st Session
                                 S. 738

 To amend the Helium Act to prohibit the Bureau of Mines from refining 
  helium and selling refined helium, to dispose of the United States 
                helium reserve, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 1, 1995

Mr. Thomas (for himself, Mr. Murkowski, Mr. Helms, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. 
  Grams, and Mr. Craig) introduced the following bill; which was read 
  twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Helium Act to prohibit the Bureau of Mines from refining 
  helium and selling refined helium, to dispose of the United States 
                helium reserve, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Helium Act of 1995''.

SEC. 2. AMENDMENT OF HELIUM ACT.

    Except as otherwise expressly provided, whenever in this Act an 
amendment or repeal is expressed in terms of an amendment to, or repeal 
of, a section or other provision, the reference shall be considered to 
be made to a section or other provision of the Helium Act (50 U.S.C. 
167 to 167n).

SEC. 3. AUTHORITY OF SECRETARY.

    Sections 3, 4, and 5 are amended to read as follows:

``SEC. 3. AUTHORITY OF SECRETARY.

    ``(a) Extraction and Disposal of Helium on Federal Lands.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Secretary may enter into agreements 
        with private parties for the recovery and disposal of helium on 
        Federal lands upon such terms and conditions as the Secretary 
        deems fair, reasonable, and necessary.
            ``(2) Leasehold rights.--The Secretary may grant leasehold 
        rights to any such helium.
            ``(3) Limitation.--The Secretary may not enter into any 
        agreement by which the Secretary sells such helium other than 
        to a private party with whom the Secretary has an agreement for 
        recovery and disposal of helium.
            ``(4) Regulations.--Agreements under paragraph (1) may be 
        subject to such regulations as may be prescribed by the 
        Secretary.
            ``(5) Existing rights.--An agreement under paragraph (1) 
        shall be subject to any rights of any affected Federal oil and 
        gas lessee that may be in existence prior to the date of the 
        agreement.
            ``(6) Terms and conditions.--An agreement under paragraph 
        (1) (and any extension or renewal of an agreement) shall 
        contain such terms and conditions as the Secretary may consider 
        appropriate.
            ``(7) Prior agreements.--This subsection shall not in any 
        manner affect or diminish the rights and obligations of the 
        Secretary and private parties under agreements to dispose of 
        helium produced from Federal lands in existence on the date of 
        enactment of the Helium Act of 1995 except to the extent that 
        such agreements are renewed or extended after that date.
    ``(b) Storage, Transportation and Sale.--The Secretary may store, 
transport, and sell helium only in accordance with this Act.
    ``(c) Monitoring and Reporting.--The Secretary may monitor helium 
production and helium reserves in the United States and periodically 
prepare reports regarding the amounts of helium produced and the 
quantity of crude helium in storage in the United States.

``SEC. 4. STORAGE AND TRANSPORTATION OF CRUDE HELIUM.

    ``(a) Storage and Transportation.--The Secretary may store and 
transport crude helium and maintain and operate crude helium storage 
facilities, in existence on the date of enactment of the Helium Act of 
1995 at the Bureau of Mines Cliffside Field, and related helium 
transportation and withdrawal facilities.
    ``(b) Cessation of Production, Refining, and Marketing.--Not later 
than 1 year after the date of enactment of the Helium Act of 1995, the 
Secretary shall cease producing, refining, and marketing refined helium 
and shall cease carrying out all other activities relating to helium 
which the Secretary was authorized to carry out under this Act before 
the date of enactment of the Helium Act of 1995, except activities 
described in subsection (a).
    ``(c) Disposal of Facilities.--
            ``(1) In general.--Subject to paragraph (5), not later than 
        1 year after the date of enactment of the Helium Act of 1995, 
        the Secretary shall dispose of all facilities, equipment, and 
        other real and personal property, and all interests therein, 
        held by the United States for the purpose of producing, 
        refining and marketing refined helium.
            ``(2) Applicable law.--The disposal of such property shall 
        be in accordance with the law governing the disposal of excess 
        or surplus properties of the United States.
            ``(3) Proceeds.--All proceeds accruing to the United States 
        by reason of the sale or other disposal of such property shall 
        be treated as moneys received under this chapter for purposes 
        of section 6(f).
            ``(4) Costs.--All costs associated with such sale and 
        disposal (including costs associated with termination of 
        personnel) and with the cessation of activities under 
        subsection (b) shall be paid from amounts available in the 
        helium production fund established under section 6(f).
            ``(5) Exception.--Paragraph (1) shall not apply to any 
        facilities, equipment, or other real or personal property, or 
        any interest therein, necessary for the storage and 
        transportation of crude helium.
    ``(d) Existing Contracts.--
            ``(1) In general.--All contracts that were entered into by 
        any person with the Secretary for the purchase by the person 
        from the Secretary of refined helium and that are in effect on 
        the date of the enactment of the Helium Act of 1995 shall 
        remain in force and effect until the date on which the 
        facilities described in subsection (c) are disposed of.
            ``(2) Costs.--Any costs associated with the termination of 
        contracts described in paragraph (1) shall be paid from the 
        helium production fund established under section 6(f).

``SEC. 5. FEES FOR STORAGE, TRANSPORTATION AND WITHDRAWAL.

    ``(a) In General.--Whenever the Secretary provides helium storage, 
withdrawal, or transportation services to any person, the Secretary 
shall impose a fee on the person to reimburse the Secretary for the 
full costs of providing such storage, transportation, and withdrawal.
    ``(b) Treatment.--All fees received by the Secretary under 
subsection (a) shall be treated as moneys received under this Act for 
purposes of section 6(f).''.

SEC. 4. SALE OF CRUDE HELIUM.

    Section 6 is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a) by striking ``from the Secretary'' 
        and inserting ``from persons who have entered into enforceable 
        contracts to purchase an equivalent amount of crude helium from 
        the Secretary'';
            (2) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) by inserting ``crude'' before ``helium''; and
                    (B) by adding the following at the end: ``Except as 
                may be required by reason of subsection (a), sales of 
                crude helium under this section shall be in amounts as 
                the Secretary determines, in consultation with the 
                helium industry, necessary to carry out this subsection 
                with minimum market disruption.'';
            (3) in subsection (c)--
                    (A) by inserting ``crude'' after ``Sales of''; and
                    (B) by striking ``together with interest as 
                provided in this subsection'' and all that follows 
                through the end of the subsection and inserting ``all 
                funds required to be repaid to the United States as of 
                October 1, 1994 under this section (referred to in this 
                subsection as `repayable amounts'). The price at which 
                crude helium is sold by the Secretary shall not be less 
                than the amount determined by the Secretary as follows:
            ``(1) Divide the outstanding amount of such repayable 
        amounts by the volume (in million cubic feet) of crude helium 
        owned by the United States and stored in the Bureau of Mines 
        Cliffside Field at the time of the sale concerned.
            ``(2) Adjust the amount determined under paragraph (1) by 
        the Consumer Price Index for years beginning after December 31, 
        1994.'';
            (4) by striking subsection (d) and inserting the following:
    ``(d) Extraction of Helium From Deposits on Federal Lands.--All 
moneys received by the Secretary from the sale or disposition of helium 
on Federal lands shall be paid to the Treasury and credited against the 
amounts required to be repaid to the Treasury under subsection (c).'';
            (5) by striking subsection (e); and
            (6) in subsection (f)--
                    (A) by inserting ``(1)'' after ``(f)''; and
                    (B) by adding the following at the end:
    ``(2)(A) Within 7 days after the commencement of each fiscal year 
after the disposal of the facilities referred to in section 4(c), all 
amounts in such fund in excess of $2,000,000 (or such lesser sum as the 
Secretary deems necessary to carry out this Act during such fiscal 
year) shall be paid to the Treasury and credited as provided in 
paragraph (1).
    ``(B) On repayment of all amounts referred to in subsection (c), 
the fund established under this section shall be terminated and all 
moneys received under this Act shall be deposited in the general fund 
of the Treasury.''.

SEC. 5. ELIMINATION OF STOCKPILE.

    Section 8 is amended to read as follows:

``SEC. 8. ELIMINATION OF STOCKPILE.

    ``(a) Review of Reserves.--The Secretary shall review annually the 
known helium reserves in the United States and make a determination as 
to the expected life of the domestic helium reserves (other than 
federally owned helium stored at the Cliffside Reservoir) at that time.
    ``(b) Stockpile Sales.--
            ``(1) Commencement.--Not later than January 1, 2005, the 
        Secretary shall commence offering for sale crude helium from 
        helium reserves owned by the United States in such amounts as 
        may be necessary to dispose of all such helium reserves in 
        excess of 600,000,000 cubic feet by January 1, 2015.
            ``(2) Times of sale.--The sales shall be at such times 
        during each year and in such lots as the Secretary determines, 
        in consultation with the helium industry, to be necessary to 
        carry out this subsection with minimum market disruption.
            ``(3) Price.--The price for all sales under paragraph (1), 
        as determined by the Secretary in consultation with the helium 
        industry, shall be such price as will ensure repayment of the 
        amounts required to be repaid to the Treasury under section 
        6(c).
    ``(c) Discovery of Additional Reserves.--The discovery of 
additional helium reserves shall not affect the duty of the Secretary 
to make sales of helium under subsection (b).''.

SEC. 6. REPEAL OF AUTHORITY TO BORROW.

    Sections 12 and 15 are repealed.
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