[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 207 (Tuesday, December 19, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S8145]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       CONFIRMATION OF OWEN WEST

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam President, equality of opportunity is one of 
our Nation's greatest pursuits and greatest struggles. Though the path 
has not been easy, our society has slowly and steadily become more 
just, more decent, and more powerful. President Obama's Defense 
Secretary Carter reaffirmed this principle when he stated that every 
qualified woman who met the high physical standards required of her 
would be allowed to serve our country in combat.
  Owen West soundly rejected this policy and the ethic undergirding it 
in an inflammatory opinion editorial authored with his father in March 
of 2016. He asserted that integrating women into infantry platoons, 
including those who ``could run circles around the average Marine 
grunt'' with their ``physical prowess,'' would ``swiftly reduce combat 
effectiveness.'' He discounted the ability of women to contribute to 
mission effectiveness, equating them only with ``intimate scandals.'' 
He contended that women would ``introduce sex, affection, favoritism, 
protectiveness, jealously, anxiety and all the other co-ed dynamics to 
an infantry platoon.''
  These chauvinistic views have no place in the Department of Defense, 
particularly in positions of leadership. As Assistant Secretary of 
Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict, Mr. West 
will be responsible for the integration of women into our Special 
Operations Forces. I appreciate that Mr. West offered a retraction of 
his views on women in the military during his Senate confirmation 
hearing, at the behest of Democratic members of the Armed Services 
Committee, and it is my hope that Mr. West will do his utmost to 
support and recruit qualified women into the military in the future. 
However, many of President Trump's nominees have reneged on commitments 
made during their confirmation hearings. Given Mr. West's public record 
on women in combat, I cannot take that risk by supporting his 
confirmation.

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