‘‘SEC. 5. FEES FOR STORAGE, TRANSPORTATION AND WITH-
DRAWAL.
‘‘Whenever the Secretary provides helium storage,
withdrawal, or transportation services to any person, the
Secretary is authorized and directed to impose fees on
such person to reimburse the Secretary for the full costs
of providing such storage, transportation, and withdrawal.
All such fees received by the Secretary 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 as follows:
(1) Subsection (a) is amended by striking out
‘‘from the Secretary’’ and inserting ‘‘from persons
who have entered into enforceable contracts to pur-
chase an equivalent amount of crude helium from
the Secretary’’.
(2) Subsection (b) is amended by inserting
‘‘crude’’ before ‘‘helium’’ and by adding the follow-
ing at the end thereof: ‘‘Except as may be required
by reason of subsection (a), the Secretary shall not
make sales of crude helium under this section in
such amounts as will disrupt the market price of
crude helium.’’.
(3) Subsection (c) is amended by inserting
‘‘crude’’ before ‘‘helium’’ after the words ‘‘Sales of’’
and by striking ‘‘together with interest as provided
in this subsection’’ and all that follows down
through the period at the end of such subsection and
inserting the following:
‘‘all funds required to be repaid to the United States as
of October 1, 1994 under this section (hereinafter referred
to as ‘repayable amounts’). The price at which crude he-
lium 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 re-
payable amounts by the volume (in mcf) of crude he-
lium 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 para-
graph (1) by the Consumer Price Index for years be-
ginning after December 31, 1994.’’.
(4) Subsection (d) is amended to read as fol-
lows:
‘‘(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 sub-
section (c) of this section.’’.
(5) Subsection (e) is repealed.
(6) Subsection (f) is amended by inserting
‘‘(1)’’ after ‘‘(f)’’ and by adding the following at the
end thereof:
‘‘(2) 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). Upon repayment of all amounts referred
to in subsection (c), the fund established under this sec-
tion shall be terminated and all moneys received under this
Act shall be deposited in the Treasury as General Reve-
nues.’’.
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 re-
view 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.—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 minimum annual amounts as would be necessary
to dispose of all such helium reserves in excess of
600,000,000 cubic feet (mcf) on a straight-line basis be-
tween such date and January 1, 2015; provided that the
minimum price for all such sales, as determined by the
Secretary in consultation with the helium industry, shall
be such as will ensure repayment of the amounts required
to be repaid to the Treasury under section 6(c), and pro-
vided further that the minimum annual sales requirement
may be deferred only if, and to the extent that, the Sec-
retary is unable to arrange sales at the minimum price.
The sales shall be at such times during each year and in
such lots as the Secretary determines, in consultation with
the helium industry, are necessary to carry out this sub-
section with minimum market disruption.
‘‘(c) DISCOVERY OF ADDITIONAL RESERVES.—The
discovery of additional helium reserves shall not affect the
duty of the Secretary to make sales of helium as provided
in subsection (b), as the case may be.’’.
SEC. 6. REPEAL OF AUTHORITY TO BORROW.
Sections 12 and 15 are repealed.
SEC. 7. REPORTS.
Section 16 is amended by redesignating existing sec-
tion 16 as section 16(a) and inserting the following at the
end thereof:
‘‘(b)(1) The Inspector General of the Department of
the Interior shall cause to be prepared, not later than
March 31 following each fiscal year commencing with the
date of enactment of the Helium Act of 1995, annual fi-
nancial statements for the Helium Operations of the Bu-
reau of Mines. The Director of the Bureau of Mines shall
cooperate with the Inspector General in fulfilling this re-
quirement, and shall provide him with such personnel and
accounting assistance as may be necessary for that pur-
pose. The financial statements shall be audited by the
General Accounting Office, and a report on such audit
shall be delivered by the General Accounting Office to the
Secretary of the Interior and Congress, not later than
June 30 following the end of the fiscal year for which they
are prepared. The audit shall be prepared in accordance
with generally accepted government auditing standards.
‘‘(2) The financial statements shall be comprised of
the following:
‘‘(A) A balance sheet reflecting the overall fi-
nancial position of the Helium Operations, including
assets and liabilities thereof;