The Senate also authorized a thrift savings plan for our military members, with implementation contingent upon offsets in the mandatory spending side of the budget to compensate for the lost tax revenues that would result. This offset issue has yet to be resolved. We believe it would be helpful if the Senate would review this issue during consideration of the FY01 budget. We are appreciative of the initiative by the Senate last year to accelerate the implementation of market-based BAH, and that initiative is fully funded in our FY01 Budget. This is also fully funded in our program.
Health care remains an integral part of our overall readiness.
We are particularly concerned about our retired Sailors and their families. The Nation needs to keep faith with those over 65 who believe we have broken the promise of lifetime care in return for their sacrifices. How we respond to this issue sends a powerful message to today's Sailors and those considering military service. These authorizations would provide us with much-needed flexibility to boost retention if it remains below goals next year. However, the allocation of resources to meet the requirements of deployed forces creates difficulties for non-deployed units, which subsequently must overcome a larger readiness hurdle as they begin to prepare for deployment.