TJ Cox: “we have actually passed this bill already once in the House and in the Senate. Unfortunately the legislation to…”

“we have actually passed this bill already once in the House and in the Senate. Unfortunately the legislation to privatize the national helium reserve was then included in the larger Balanced Budget Act that was vetoed by President Clinton. This time we are wisely passing the bill all by itself because it is, I think, enormously popular on both the Democrat and Republican sides after many, many years of hard work to get it that far. I want to thank my colleague, the gentleman from Hawaii [Mr. Abercrombie] for his work in helping us move this bill to the floor, as well as my colleague from California, who is, as chairman, responsible for bringing this bill directly to the floor. I would also like to thank my colleague, the gentleman from Massachusetts, Barney Frank, who spoke earlier on this legislation. He and I coauthored it in not only the current Congress but past Congresses. It has been many, many years that we have been working on this bill.”