Northweldor
The National Helium Reserve, also known as the Federal Helium Reserve, is a strategic reserve of the United States holding over a billion cubic feet of helium gas. The helium is stored at the Cliffside Storage Facility about 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Amarillo, Texas in a natural geologic gas storage formation. The reserve was established in 1925 as a strategic supply of gas for airships, and in the 1950s became an important source of coolant during the Space Race and Cold War.
The facilities were located to be close to the Hugoton and other natural gas fields in southwest Kansas and the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma. The natural gas in these fields contains unusually high percentages of helium, from 0.3% to 2.7%; they constitute the largest source of helium in the United States. The helium is separated as a byproduct from the produced natural gas.
After the "Helium Acts Amendments of 1960" (Public Law 86–777), the U.S. Bureau of Mines arranged for five private plants to recover helium from natural gas. For this helium conservation program, the Bureau built a 425-mile (684 km) pipeline from Bushton, Kansas to connect those plants with the government's partially depleted Cliffside gas field. This helium-nitrogen mixture was injected and stored in the Cliffside gas field until needed, when it then was further purified.
By 1995, a billion cubic metres of the gas had been collected and the reserve was US$1.4 billion in debt, prompting the Congress of the United States in 1996 to phase out the reserve. The resulting "Helium Privatization Act of 1996" (Public Law 104–273) directed the United States Department of the Interior to start liquidating the reserve by 2005.
By 2007, the Federal government was reported as auctioning off the Amarillo Helium Plant. The National Helium Reserve itself was reported as, "Slowly being drawn down and sold to private industry.

Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, and accounts for 24% of the elemental mass of our galaxy. In the Earth's atmosphere, the concentration of helium by volume is only 5.2 parts per million. The concentration is low and fairly constant despite the continuous production of new helium because most helium in the Earth's atmosphere escapes into space by several processes.
They are getting rid of the Helium reserve as it is costing money to maintain.
There is not a shortage.
Marshall

Good article.  The biggest user of Helium nowadays is commercial diving industry.  We use about 85% of produced for diving beyond 200 feet of water. 

Charles

oops digging up an old post but just thought I should mention. In countries and areas that are helium poor, there's been concerted effort to reduce helium dependency or it's high price has prohibited it's use. For example because of the lack of any natural helium resources Japan has traditionally used Argon and CO2 in all but the unavoidable welding processes. Also as part of Japans national resource policy it generally reserves resources that are deemed important to the economy, helium included.

Also as a correction Helium is also a fission byproduct and is hence found in significant qualities anywhere Uranium is mined, or as a fission gas from Breeder reactors, however I don't believe it is produced in significant quantities via this method.

If you think Helium is in short supply, the latest article  of the ceramics Bulletin magazine states the  desperate shortage and source security of ALL rare earth elements. Of note to welding is lanthanum and cerium... popular additives to tungsten electrodes and minor alloying elements.  http://americanceramicsociety.org/bulletin/sept_10/#/22/
Luckily the US is reacting to this resources shortage by trying to increase  mining of REE's in North america. Unfortunately we are putting in no concerted effort to recycle or recapture any critical resource be it Helium or Rare or elements.