The US Congress moved a step closer to averting an impending shutdown of the federal helium reserve, a key supplier of the lighter-than-air gas used in a products ranging from party balloons to MRI machines.
The Federal Helium Program, which provides about 42 percent of the nation’s helium from a storage site near Amarillo, Texas, is set to shut down Oct. 7 unless lawmakers intervene. The shutdown is a result of a 1996 law requiring the reserve to pay off a $1.3 billion debt by selling its helium.
The debt is paid, but billions of cubic feet of helium remain. Closing the reserve would cause a worldwide helium shortage – an outcome lawmakers from both parties hope to avoid.
The Senate approved a bill 09/19/13, by 97-2, to continue the helium program, following action in the House this spring.
Preserving access to the federal helium supply “prevents a shock to the health care sector and other critical industries that depend on helium,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, said. “Protecting America’s manufacturing base, its research capabilities, its health care system and its national security by temporarily extending the life of the (federal) helium program is just common sense.”
