in 1996 Congress passed the Helium Privatization Act. The Act ordered the Reserve to sell off its stockpile, starting in 2005, at a formula-driven price -- not auctioned off at market rate, and to cease sales and shut down operations by 2015.

I'm a bit disappointed that Pricenomics didn't do some follow-up work to determine who sponsored this legislation, who that legislator's main political donors were, and which industrial concerns benefited the most from this implicit subsidy.