Helium Fund

What this funds

' Supplemental funding reflects amounts made available in the fiscal year, not estimated allocations or obligations. Bureau of Land Management 2027 Budget Justification The BLM, through its New Mexico State Office, administers the Federal Helium Program that is responsible for the conservation and sale of federally owned helium. The BLM operates and maintains a helium storage reservoir, enrichment plant, and pipeline that supplies roughly 15 percent of the domestic and 6 percent of the global demand for helium. The Helium Stewardship Act of 2013 (HSA), Public Law 113-40, set forth the process requiring BLM to dispose of all Federal helium assets. Public bidding for the helium system occurred in January 2024. The sale and transfer of responsibility of the Federal Helium System to a private party occurred on June 24, 2024. Since that date, the BLM has been working to fulfill all remaining obligations outlined in the HSA. The Helium Act Amendments of 1960, P.L. 86-777 (50 USC 167), authorizes activities necessary to provide sufficient helium to meet the current and foreseeable future needs of essential government activities. The Helium Privatization Act of 1996 (HPA), P.L. 104-273, provides for the eventual privatization of the program and its functions, specifying that once the helium debt is retired, the Helium Production Fund will be dissolved. The debt was repaid at the beginning of fiscal year 2014. The HSA provided for continued operation of the Helium program while facilitating a gradual exit from the helium market. The Helium Program consists of: (a) continued storage and transmission of crude helium; (b) oversight of the production of helium on Federal lands; and (c) administration of in-kind and open market crude helium gas sale programs. To minimize impacts to the helium market, the HSA provided a "glide path" from the sales mandated under HPA, increasing the sales price of helium through an auction mechanism and reducing the total volume of helium sold each year until the amount in storage reaches 3.0 billion cubic feet (bcf). This 3.0 bcf target was reached October 1, 2018, and the BLM is no longer selling crude helium. The Federal In-Kind Program ended in September 2022. Additionally, the HSA directs the BLM to transfer all assets for disposal to GSA by September 30, 2021, and this milestone was met. The GSA, following its disposal process, will complete marketing and asset valuation and dispose of all assets. The Federal Helium Program is composed of the Federal helium reserve, the Cliffside gas field, the helium enrichment unit, the Federal helium pipeline, and other infrastructure owned, leased, or managed under or management of helium. The BLM's Helium Program is now primarily composed of administering helium fee and royalty contracts for helium extracted from gas produced on Federal lands. Finally, the BLM is responsible for providing access to Federal land for managed recovery and disposal of helium. Revenue in excess of program operating costs is transferred to the General Fund of the Treasury. The table below shows actual and estimated revenues utilized to operate the Helium Program. Chapter XII - Helium Fund and Operations Page - XII - 4 Bureau of Land Management 2027 Budget Justification *Includes amounts retained by BLM for operations of the Helium Program (as shown in the Summary of Requirements table). Revenues in excess of program operating costs are transferred to the Treasury. In FY 2024, the Amarillo Field Office closed the sale of the Federal helium system and collected production and sales and $87,000 in Transmission & Storage Operations. Chapter XII - Helium Fund and Operations Page - XII - 5 Bureau of Land Management 2027 Budget Justification The Bureau of Land Management may carry out the operations funded under this Act by direct expenditure, contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, and reimbursable agreements with public and private entities, including with States. Appropriations for the Bureau shall be available for purchase, erection, and dismantlement of temporary structures, and alteration and maintenance of necessary buildings and appurtenant facilities to which the United States has title; up to $100,000 for payments, at the discretion of the Secretary, for information or evidence concerning violations of laws administered by the Bureau; miscellaneous and emergency expenses of enforcement activities authorized or approved by the Secretary and to be accounted for solely on the Secretary's certificate, not to exceed $10,000: Provided, That notwithstanding section 501 of title 44, United States Code, the Bureau may, under cooperative cost- sharing and partnership arrangements authorized by law, procure printing services from cooperators in connection with jointly produced publications for which the cooperators share the cost of printing either in cash or in services, and the Bureau determines the cooperator is capable of meeting accepted quality standards: Provided further, That projects to be funded pursuant to a written commitment by a State government to provide an identified amount of money in support of the project may be carried out by the 44 U.S.C. 501 Provides that all executive, congressional, and judicial printing must be done at the GPO, except for printing in field plants operated by executive departments or independent offices if approved by the Joint Bureau of Land Management 2027 Budget Justification

Extracted from Bureau of Land Management, p. 221. Verbatim; nothing here is paraphrased.

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