By U.S. Senator Deb Fischer

** Audio for this week’s column is not available due to the Nebraska work period** 

Creativity can happen anywhere. This is always a key insight for me as I travel Nebraska and hear from families, businesses, and entrepreneurs across our state.

Innovative ideas may begin in the private sector, but they need not stay there. They can cross over into the public sector, offering new answers to old problems.

This is exactly what has happened at the Omaha VA hospital.

An aging facility, the hospital was placed tenth on the VA’s list of sites scheduled for major construction and improvement. Tenth. But because of the number of current projects, cost projections, and a host of VA budgetary problems, Omaha veterans would not see their new hospital for several years, possibly decades. 

Seeing a need to expedite this project, lawmakers, concerned citizens, and business leaders applied their creativity and came up with a solution. By allowing local communities to be involved with the planning, design, and construction, we could provide modern medical facilities for veterans in a timelier manner. By allowing the VA to accept donated funds and buildings, we could speed the process even more.

VA Secretary Bob McDonald has embraced this concept, and, last week, I welcomed him to Omaha to meet with business leaders and review plans for modernizing the VA hospital campus.

Secretary McDonald and I also witnessed the power of community partnerships as we helped dedicate the new Omaha National Cemetery, itself the result of cooperation between veterans, volunteers, local public servants, and the VA. Thanks to them, families will no longer have to travel, in some cases hundreds of miles, to lay a wreath or share a quiet moment with their departed loved one.

The driving force behind these partnerships is the desire of communities and businesses to give back to those who have given so much for them. At its core is the notion that problems should first be handled at the local level by the people who understand them best. It strengthens bonds of community. It produces the strongest results.

In the Senate, I have introduced a bill that would empower communities not only in Omaha, but also across our country to follow that desire and better serve our veterans.

My legislation would create a pathway for local communities to exercise their expertise and bring together design and medical teams to build first-rate medical facilities for veterans. In these community partnerships, local leaders would manage construction projects from start to finish. With private sector experts taking the lead, the VA can avoid issues that have haunted previous projects.

This is also a fiscally responsible solution. The VA has already appropriated millions of dollars to construction projects that are not yet finished. My bill would allow communities to contribute the remaining finances to complete these projects. The VA’s financial obligation for the construction of these medical facilities would be limited to the previous appropriation and not one dollar more.

My legislation has been referred to the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. I am hopeful it will be voted out of committee this fall.

As with any new idea, there will be challenges. But with cooperation and open communication, we can forge a new way to fund and build the needed infrastructure for our veterans.

We know the VA faces an extensive construction backlog that will take years, possibly even decades, to overcome. This innovative approach can bring a first-class, state-of-the-art ambulatory clinic to Omaha within the next few years.

I am exceedingly grateful to Secretary McDonald for seeing the potential of this new idea and for taking such an active leadership role in moving it forward.

We owe it to our veterans to provide them with the quality care they have earned. Communities across America are ready to do it, and they do not want to wait for Washington. They are ready to act now to restore the veterans’ health care system. I say we let them.

Thank you for taking part in our democratic process. I look forward to visiting with you again next week.