Statement by the Press Secretary on H.R. 527 and S. 793

On Wednesday, October 2, 2013, the President signed into law:

H.R. 527, the "Helium Stewardship Act of 2013," which authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to continue to sell crude helium from the Federal Helium Reserve for a specified timeframe; extends payments to certain counties under the Secure Rural Schools program; increases the cap on payments to States that have completed all of their high-priority coal mine reclamation projects; provides $50 million for remediation and reclamation of abandoned oil and gas wells within the National Petroleum Reserve; provides $50 million to the National Park Service for maintenance and infrastructure projects within national parks; and requires the Bureau of Land Management to reduce the royalty on the value of soda ash and certain related minerals produced on Federal lands to 4 percent for a two-year period; and

S. 793, the "Organization of American States Revitalization and Reform Act of 2013," which promotes reform of the Organization of American States.