Hawaii’s two U.S. senators are co-sponsors of legislation that would give Hawaii another health care facility for veterans, possibly built in Leeward Oahu and named after retired Sen. Daniel Akaka.

The bill is among the stack of measures intended to make the Department of Veterans Affairs more accountable following reports of the nation’s veterans enduring long wait times — prompting the resignation of Kauai-born retired Army Gen. Eric "Ric" Shinseki as head of the agency. 

The bill’s major sponsor, Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), announced Thursday that a bipartisan agreement had been reached for a Senate floor vote as early as next week. The legislation would then go to the House, which has passed at least nine measures in recent months that aim to improve veterans’ education, employment and health care.

The compromise legislation would allow veterans to see private doctors outside the VA system if they experience long wait times or live more than 40 miles from a VA facility. It also would make it easier for the Veterans Affairs secretary to fire senior VA health officials for poor performance, while allowing them to appeal. 

The new Ensuring Veterans Access to Care Act 2014, negotiated with Republican Sen. John McCain, would authorize the VA to spend $2 billion in emergency funds to hire doctors and nurses. It would also authorize leases for 26 major medical facilities in 18 states and Puerto Rico, including a $15.88 million lease for the Advance Leeward Outpatient Healthcare Access (ALOHA) Center on Oahu’s Ewa plain.

The proposed Leeward facility is similar to one proposed two years ago by the late Sen. Daniel Inouye and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. Inouye and other members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation wanted it to be named after Akaka.

"Once completed, the 118,000-square-foot ALOHA Center will double the VA’s existing clinical capacity on Oahu, helping veterans get the timely care they need by alleviating the demand for existing services at the Spark M. Matsunaga VA Medical Center at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu," Sen. Brian Schatz said in a news release. "The facility is initially expected to provide care to 15,000 veterans, with enrollment growing annually as more veterans visit from the North Shore and the center of the island." 

In response to reports of the compromised legislation, which includes funding for the proposed clinic, Sen. Mazie Hirono, a member of the Senate Armed Services and Veterans’ Affairs Committees, said in a statement, "When I meet with veterans, access to care has been and continues to be the number one issue. That’s why I worked to secure funding for the Leeward Oahu VA Health Center. There is no easy answer to solve this problem and we must attack access issues — and all issues our veterans face in getting care — on multiple fronts to make sure the brave men and women who serve our country get what they need."

Earlier in the week Hirono said she wanted to ensure that "the spotlight isn’t on the VA just during crisis — we need to maintain constant vigilance to ensure our veterans are treated with the dignity and honor they deserve even when the cameras move on to other things." 

Meaghan Smith, Schatz’s spokeswoman, said the VA’s plans for the Ewa plain clinic show it will be about the same size as its Tripler facility, which is the largest VA clinic in the state.

The VA expects to award the lease within 26 months of passage of its budget authorization. As yet no site has been selected.

Services will include primary care, mental health and specialty care services as well as ancillary and diagnostic services.

In 2012 the Inouye-Murray bill reflected the VA’s estimate of leasing the Kapolei land at $16.4 million, Smith said.

However, for its fiscal 2014 budget the VA revalued the land over 20 years and estimated it would cost $15.8 million, Smith added. 

In June 2012, Inouye, speaking on the Senate floor, said the facility should be named after Akaka, who had been a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, chairman of the Subcommittee on Readiness and chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee. Akaka retired from the Senate in early 2013 after serving there for 22 years. He was a member of the U.S. House from 1977 to 1990.

Inouye said that Akaka, as chairman of the Senate Veterans Affair Committee, "kept watch over and labored to improve the quality of care received by our brave men and women who completed their military service and entered into the VA system."

A proposal to name the Ewa VA clinic after Akaka was introduced in the U.S. House in December by Rep. Colleen Hanabusa and referred to the House Subcommittee on Health. 

The VA Pacific Islands Health Care System provides a broad range of medical care services to an estimated 129,000 veterans throughout Hawaii and the Pacific islands with clinics at Tripler Army Medical Center, on Maui and Kauai, and in Hilo and Kona on Hawaii island.