Editing Jesse Helms (section)

===Final Senate years===
[[File:President George W. Bush Signs Iraq Resolution.jpg|thumb|right|Helms watches [[President of the United States|President]] [[George W. Bush]] sign H.J. Resolution 114 authorizing the use of force against Iraq in 2002.]]
In January 1997, during the confirmation hearings for Secretary of State nominee [[Madeleine Albright]], Helms stated President Clinton's first term had left adversaries of the United States in doubt of their resolve and that "a lot of Americans" were praying she would issue in a change during her tenure.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/01/09/at-albrights-confirmation-hearing-differences-are-smoothed-over/1c515f9e-86d5-4005-b1cc-ba5d217acdce/|title=At Albright's Confirmation Hearing, Differences Are Smoothed Over |first=Thomas W.|last=Lippman|date=January 9, 1997|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> Two months later, after being confirmed, Albright traveled with Helms to his boyhood home and the Jesse Helms Center for discussions on the treaty to ban chemical arms, Helms afterward saying the pair would not have any issues if they continued being able to cooperate but stressed that the treaty would not assist with protecting Americans.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1997/03/26/albright-peace-mission-takes-her-to-helms-turf/|title=Albright Peace Mission Takes Her To Helms' Turf|first=David S.|last=Cloud|newspaper=Chicago Tribune}}</ref> In a March 1998 letter to Albright, Helms stated his opposition "to the creation of a permanent U.N. criminal court" and the United Nations becoming "a sovereign entity", Helms spokesman Marc Thiessen confirming concerns of the senator "that a permanent tribunal will turn into a petty claims court that will spend its time taking up complaints about the United States" and thereby serve the function of the General Assembly.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/27/world/helms-vows-to-make-war-on-un-court.html|title=Helms Vows To Make War On U.N. Court|first=Barbara|last=Crossette|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 27, 1998 }}</ref>

In September 1997, amid the Senate voting to repeal a $50 billion tax break for the tobacco industry, Helms joined [[Mitch McConnell]] and [[Lauch Faircloth]] in being one of three senators to vote against the amendment.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/11/us/senate-repeals-tax-break-for-the-tobacco-industry.html|title=Senate Repeals Tax Break For the Tobacco Industry|first=Lizette|last=Alvarez|date=September 11, 1997|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>

In January 1998, President Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky became public. Helms found the revelation "damning", having little patience for sexual transgressions and said anyone that would advocate President Clinton's "should be excused, already announced their total lack of character".<ref name=Link443>{{harvnb|Link|2008|p=[https://archive.org/details/righteouswarrior00link_0/page/443 443]}}</ref> In remarks the following month, Helms stated the scandal had left him saddened for the United States and President Clinton's daughter [[Chelsea Clinton|Chelsea]]. Helms exercised caution on the impeachment issue, refraining from announcing his vote until right before Clinton's Senate trial in January of the following year.<ref name=Link443 /> ''[[The Washington Post]]'' noted Helms as the only one of the nine senators who had by then served a quarter century to vote in favor of Lewinsky making an appearance before the chamber.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/journal020599.htm|title=Thurmond Leads in a Resounding 'No'|first=David Von|last=Drehle|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> In his memoir, Helms stated that his vote against Clinton was not personal and that he understood "the fallibility of every human, and the power of Grace", but that he was unwilling to deny the Constitution not allowing "gradients of wrongdoing" since Clinton was proven to have lied under oath.<ref name=Helms197>{{cite book|title=Here's where I Stand: A Memoir|pages=197–198|first=Jesse|last=Helms|year=2005|isbn=978-0375508844|publisher=Random House}}</ref>

In March 1998, after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to add Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Helms predicted the resolution would pass overwhelmingly in the full chamber and said the vote was a testament to "confidence in the democracies of Eastern Europe".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/04/world/key-senate-panel-passes-resolution-to-expand-nato.html|title=Key Senate Panel Passes Resolution to Expand NATO  |first=Steven|last=Erlanger|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 4, 1998 }}</ref>

In May 1998, while delivering remarks to Therma, Inc. employees, President Clinton listed Helms as one of the senators who had aided the intent of [[Partnership for Peace]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PPP-1998-book1/html/PPP-1998-book1-doc-pg653-2.htm|title=Remarks at a Roundtable Discussion With Employees of Therma, Inc., in San Jose, California|date=May 1, 1998|first=Bill|last=Clinton|author-link=Bill Clinton|publisher=Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States}}</ref>

While the United States cast one of four votes against the [[Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court]], adopted by a 120 to 4 vote in July 1998, President Clinton signed the Statute for the United States. However, Helms was strident in his opposition and let it be known that any attempt to have the Senate ratify the Statute would be "dead on arrival" at the Foreign Relations Committee. He also introduced the [[American Service-Members' Protection Act]], adopted by Congress in 2002 "to protect United States military personnel and other elected and appointed officials of the United States government against criminal prosecution by an international criminal court to which the United States is not party".

In June 1999, after President Clinton nominated [[Richard Holbrooke]] for [[United States Ambassador to the United Nations]], the Clinton administration expressed concerns with Helms's silence on whether he would allow a vote on Holbrooke's nomination.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/17/world/helms-has-white-house-worried-about-its-un-nomination.html|title=Helms Has White House Worried About Its U.N. Nomination|first=Philip|last=Shenon|date=June 17, 1999|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> In a June 5 statement, Helms announced the date of the four hearings and that Holbrooke would be questioned regarding his career, specifically his mediating role in negotiations of the Bosnia accords with [[President of Yugoslavia]] [[Slobodan Milošević]]. Helms added that he could not "recall another Cabinet-level nomination sent to this committee with so much ethical baggage attached to it".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/05/world/crisis-balkans-senate-helms-start-four-hearings-holbrooke-june-17.html|title=Crisis in the Balkans: The Senate; Helms to Start Four Hearings On Holbrooke On June 17|date=June 5, 1999|first=Philip|last=Shenon|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> During the confirmation hearings, Helms stated that Holbrooke had violated the law repeatedly. In response, Holbrooke apologized and admitted to his "misconceptions" regarding ethics, Helms afterward expressing optimism toward the nomination as a result of Holbrooke's remorse.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/18/world/helms-prods-holbrooke-and-receives-a-concession.html|title=Helms Prods Holbrooke And Receives A Concession|first=Philip|last=Shenon|date=June 18, 1999|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> Three months later, after President Clinton nominating former Senator [[Carol Moseley-Braun]] for [[United States Ambassador to New Zealand]], Helms released a statement saying the "nomination comes to the Senate with an ethical cloud hanging over Ms. Moseley-Braun" and questioned if her record had even been examined by the Clinton administration. An article published around the same time as the statement by ''[[Roll Call (newspaper)|Roll Call]]'' indicated Helms would prevent the nomination unless Moseley-Braun "amends for past slights" such as her opposition to the renewal of the emblem for the Daughters of the Confederacy.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1999/10/18/senate-foreign-relations-committee-chairman-jesse-helms/|title=Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jesse Helms...|date=October 18, 1999|newspaper=Chicago Tribune}}</ref> Helms subsequently demanded documents relating to Moseley-Braun's ethical charges and delayed confirmation hearings until receiving them. On November 9, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to endorse Moseley-Braun 17 to 1, Helms being the lone vote against the nomination.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/09/world/senate-panel-clears-moseley-braun-appointment-as-ambassador.html|title=Senate Panel Clears Moseley-Braun Appointment as Ambassador|date=November 9, 1999|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> When the Senate voted to confirm Moseley-Braun, Helms was joined by [[Peter Fitzgerald (politician)|Peter Fitzgerald]], who defeated Moseley-Braun in her re-election bid, in being the only two senators to vote against her.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1999/11/11/senate-oks-new-title-for-former-colleague/|title=Senate Oks New Title For Former Colleague|date=November 11, 1999|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|first=Mike|last=Dorning}}</ref>

In 2000, [[Bono]] sought out Jesse Helms to discuss increasing American aid to Africa. In Africa, AIDS is a disease that is primarily transmitted heterosexually, and Helms sympathized with Bono's description of "the pain it is bringing to infants and children and their families".<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=Time |url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1187308,00.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060529110536/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1187308,00.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= May 29, 2006 |title= Bono |date=April 30, 2006 |first=Jesse|last=Helms}}</ref> Helms insisted that Bono involve the international community and private sector, so that relief efforts would not be paid for by "just Americans".<ref>{{cite news|work= [[The Charlotte Observer]]|first= Charles|last= Hurt|title= Helms Brings Hollywood to the Hill|url= http://bellsouthpwp.net/w/a/watts4u2/bono_and_jesse_helms.htm|date= March 14, 2002|access-date= August 29, 2008|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080906203351/http://bellsouthpwp.net/w/a/watts4u2/bono_and_jesse_helms.htm|archive-date= September 6, 2008}}</ref> Helms coauthored a bill authorizing $600 million for international AIDS relief efforts. In 2002, Helms announced that he was ashamed to have done so little during his Senate career to fight the worldwide spread of AIDS, and pledged to do more during his last few months in the Senate. Helms spoke with special appreciation of the efforts of [[Janet Museveni]], first lady of [[Uganda]], for her efforts to stop the spread of AIDS through a campaign based on "biblical values and sexual purity".<ref>{{cite news |first=John |last=Wagner |title=Helms admits 'shame' over inaction on AIDS |url=http://bellsouthpwp.net/w/a/watts4u2/bono_and_jesse_helms.htm |work=The News & Observer |location=Raleigh, NC |date=February 21, 2002 |access-date=August 29, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080906203351/http://bellsouthpwp.net/w/a/watts4u2/bono_and_jesse_helms.htm |archive-date=September 6, 2008 }}</ref> Helms also was a proponent in trying to dissolve the United States Agency for International Development.<ref>Brainard, et al, 2003, The Other War: Global Poverty and the Millennium Challenge Account, Washington DC: Brooklings Institution and Center for Global Development, p.187</ref>

In January 2001, Helms stated he would support an increase in international assistance on the condition that all future aid from the United States be provided to the needy by private charities and religious groups as opposed to a government agency, and endorsed abolishing the [[United States Agency for International Development]] and concurrently transferring its 7 billion in annual aid to another foundation which would give grants to private relief groups.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/11/politics/helms-wants-religious-groups-to-funnel-foreign-aid.html|title=Helms Wants Religious Groups to Funnel Foreign Aid|first=Eric|last=Schmitt|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 11, 2001 }}</ref>

In March 2002, Helms and Democrat [[Joe Biden]], in their positions as the ranking members of their parties on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, submitted a letter to the Bush administration demanding the Senate receive any nuclear arms reductions with Russia as a formal treaty.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/17/world/senators-insist-on-role-in-nuclear-arms-deals.html?mtrref=www.nytimes.com&gwh=7DB969DD2F0B8CA1FA53D7463FE1DDA9&gwt=pay|title=Senators Insist on Role in Nuclear Arms Deals|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 17, 2002}}</ref>