Max Cleland: “I am particularly honored to serve as the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee…”

“I am particularly honored to serve as the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee, a charge I have embraced to its fullest. In the first session of the 105th Congress, I pledged my commitment to improving military health care. Today, I am here to discuss proposals to offer both immediate assistance and a time phased legislative strategy to fulfill this commitment. The Fiscal Year 1998 Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 105-85) included a Sense of the Congress Resolution which provided a finding that ``many retired military personnel believe that they were promised lifetime health care in exchange for 20 or more years of service,'' and expresses the sense of Congress that ``the United States has incurred a moral obligation'' to provide health care to members and retired members of the Armed Services and that Congress and the President should take steps to address ``the problems associated with the availability of health care for such retirees within two years.'' I authored that resolution, and today in year one of my two-year challenge, I stand ready to take the first of many necessary steps to fulfill this obligation. I call this obligation ``K-P Duty''--K-P as in KEEPING PROMISES. As a disabled veteran and retiree, as former head of the Veterans Administration, and as the Ranking Member on the Personnel Subcommittee, I am seeking to draft Congress and the entire nation and put us all on K-P Duty.…”