[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8248]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      EXECUTIVE CALENDAR OBJECTION

 Mrs. McCASKILL. Madam President, I rise to express my intent 
to sustain my objection to the nomination of Lt. Gen. Susan Helms to be 
deputy commander of U.S. Space Command, Calendar No. 70. I have met 
with Lieutenant General Helms and discussed my objection with leaders 
in the Air Force and my colleagues here in the Senate.
  Lieutenant General Helms has a record of more than 30 years of 
distinguished military service, in which she became the first American 
military woman in space, among other significant achievements. Her 
career is to be celebrated. However, I continue to have deep concerns 
with Lieutenant General Helms' decision, while a commander and courts-
martial convening authority, to overturn the jury verdict of a military 
court-martial in which the jury found an Air Force officer guilty of 
sexual assault. She made this decision against the advice of her staff 
judge advocate.
  With her action, Lieutenant General Helms sent a damaging message to 
survivors of sexual assault who are seeking justice in the military 
justice system: They can take the difficult and painful step of 
reporting the crime, they can endure the agony involved in being 
subjected to intense questioning often aimed at putting the blame on 
them, and they can experience a momentary sense of justice in knowing 
that they were believed when their attacker is convicted and sentenced, 
only to have that justice ripped away with the stroke of a pen by an 
individual who was never in the courtroom for the trial and who never 
heard the testimony. In overturning the conviction in this case, 
Lieutenant General Helms supplanted her opinion for that of a jury, the 
appropriate adjudicators of fact who observe an entire court-martial 
proceeding. And she did not take the advice of her staff judge 
advocate, who recommended she affirm the conviction in this case. At a 
time when the military is facing a crisis of sexual assault, making a 
decision that sends a message which dissuades reporting of sexual 
assaults, supplants the finding of a jury, contradicts the advice of 
counsel, and further victimizes a survivor of sexual assault is 
unacceptable.
  Given these circumstances, I will continue to object to any unanimous 
consent request to approve Lieutenant General Helms' nomination. I will 
continue to give great scrutiny to any future nomination of any member 
of the armed services who has, while serving in his or her capacity as 
a convening authority of a military court-martial, overturned a jury 
conviction against the advice of legal counsel.

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