Cord Byrd: “Well, Mr. President, Secretary Cohen has flouted the recommendations of the Kassebaum/Baker report that he himself…”

“Well, Mr. President, Secretary Cohen has flouted the recommendations of the Kassebaum/Baker report that he himself commissioned. He has promised to implement the easiest recommendations in that report while publicly repudiating its core recommendations. He has not waited for the Senate commission's report either. He got out in front of it. Senator Brownback's amendment, and the amendment that I have prepared, would say if you are in for a penny, you are in for a pound. If the report has merit--and Secretary Cohen has acknowledged that at least parts of it do have merit in his estimation--then we ought not to reject those parts of the report that do not seem politically correct. In fact, the Kassebaum/Baker report notes that ``the committee has made recommendations regarding gender integration in training where appropriate, but has also made recommendations regarding the large number of other issues that we concluded have an impact on the effectiveness of the overall training program.”