Political Quotes

“I yield myself 2 minutes. Mr. Chairman, I oppose this amendment. While it is being sold as an attempt to protect contract and property rights, it does none of these things because there are no rights that are violated by this bill. What the amendment actually does is undermine the free-market competition that is embodied in H.R. 527 that will ensure a fair return to taxpayers on the Federal helium that is in the repository. This amendment seeks to guarantee a special carve-out for primarily three companies and thus block competition. For over a decade, these three companies have profited from helium handouts at low market prices that were granted to them by BLM. All of that ends, Mr. Chairman, in October of this year. These handouts end because the contracts say that when the money is paid back that the Federal Government has invested, these contracts end. So this amendment does not protect existing valid contracts because they expire in October. What the amendment actually would do is revise the expiring special handouts of these three companies. The amendment would shut down competition from other bidders who may be willing to bid for a higher price of the helium. I have a letter from three companies who jointly express strong opposition because it would prevent them in the future from bidding on this helium. And to be clear, there are no helium distributors or manufacturers of helium who are advocating for this amendment. It is just the three refiners. To repeat, H.R.…”