House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) is seeking information from the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and General Services Administration (GSA) on the sale of the United States’ Federal Helium System (FHS) to a company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). On June 27, 2024, the Biden Administration announced the final sale and transferring of the U.S. government’s remaining helium reserve to Messer LLC, a subsidiary of a German industrial gas business group with operations in China. In a letter to DOI Secretary Doug Bergum and GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian, Chairman Comer is requesting briefings from the Bureau of Land Management and GSA to better understand the transfer of the nation’s helium assets and the sale’s impact on national security and American businesses.
“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is conducting oversight focused on the sale of the United States’ Federal Helium System (FHS) to Messer LLC — ‘a domestic subsidiary of the German industrial gas business Messer Group (Messer).’ Messer is tied to the Chinese Communist Party and even touts sending helium produced in the U.S. directly to one of the company’s plants in China. The Biden Administration’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM)—a bureau within the U.S. Department of the Interior—announced the sale of the FHS, which supplies ‘over 20% of the domestic and 9% of the global demand for helium,’ to Messer LLC. The Committee seeks to better understand BLM’s and the General Services Administration’s—the agencies primarily responsible for the sale—analyses of and perspective regarding the transfer of the helium assets including any analysis of national security concerns associated with the transaction or mitigations put in place,” wrote Chairman Comer.
Helium is one of the most essential elements used in everyday life and a finite resource produced in just four countries: the United States, Qatar, Algeria, and Russia. The U.S. government has described helium as critical to scientific research, medical technology, high-tech manufacturing, space exploration and national defense. The FHS is the world’s largest long-term helium storage facility and has played a critical role in satisfying not only the United States’ helium needs but also the global market. The sale by the Biden Administration concluded the federal government’s ownership of helium.
“The Committee requests a briefing from BLM and GSA to evaluate the impacts this sale could have on American consumers and businesses, as well as the federal government,” continued Chairman Comer. “The Committee is not alone in asking questions about the FHS sale. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration expressed concern, citing national security and supply chain shortages. Private stakeholders in the medical, scientific, and helium industries also warned ‘[o]ur collective organizations have reviewed the sale as GSA has proposed it, and we believe the sale presents a significant risk of disruption to the helium supply chain, injects needless uncertainty into critical industries, and could have harmful national and economic security implications.’”
Read the letter to DOI and GSA here.