Green's health declined. In 1955 Cruikshank was named director of the AFL's newly formed Department of Social Security. He continued in that role after the AFL and Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) merged in 1955. Cruikshank used his position to protect and enhance Social Security as part of the union movement's commitment to a comprehensive legislative package of federal social insurance programs, including national health care insurance and income supports for the poor, people with disabilities and the unemployed. He created the AFL–CIO's Social Security Advisory Committee as a political group to press for higher and expanded benefits. In 1956, Cruikshank's efforts were instrumental in winning passage of the Social Security Disability Insurance amendments, which provided income assistance to permanently disabled workers. Role in enactment of Medicare Cruikshank immediately turned his attention to health care for the elderly. In 1960, as planning for the first White House Conference on Aging got underway, Cruikshank worked with Meany's friend, Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, to secure the appointment of a liberal Republican as chairman of the conference. He also won placement for senior citizens' health care issues in a favorable committee, to protect it from the AMA (which was vehemently opposed to national health insurance). The 1960 presidential election occurred concurrently with planning for the conference, and Cruikshank used the AFL–CIO's involvement in the election to build an organization of more than 500 health care and seniors' groups. When the White House Conference on Aging convened in 1961, Cruikshank mobilized his campaign group to defend and advance the national health insurance program and win the Conference's approval. In July 1961, at the urging of Rep. Aime J. Forand (D-Rhode Island), Cruikshank transformed the coalition he had created into the National Council of Senior Citizens (NCSC). Forand, now retired from Congressional service, became its first president. From 1961 to 1965, Cruikshank worked closely with NCSC. In April 1963, the group won a presidential proclamation establishing "Senior Citizen's Month" (now Older Americans Month). But his most important accomplishment was working behind the scenes to win passage of Medicare—national health insurance for the elderly. Cruikshank played a critical role in coordinating the lobbying efforts of NCSC, the AFL–CIO and other groups, and helped engineer a nationally-televised speech by President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden on May 20, 1962. Cruikshank was a critical lobbyist for passage of Medicare. He helped eliminate any role