A group of Senators announced a bipartisan bill Thursday to rectify the issues plaguing the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The bill will most likely be approved by the Senate next week, and will then be sent to the House for a final vote, according to The Washington Post.

If the bill is passed, it will permit veterans who live more than 40 miles from a Veterans Affairs facility or who are experiencing long wait times to go to a different private or government medical facility. The bill also proposes allocating $500 million to hire more VA doctors and nurses.

"Right now we have a crisis on our hands and it's imperative that we deal with that crisis," said Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) when the bill was announced.

The agreement was reached after four days of talks between Sanders and a group of Republican lawmakers led by Sen. John McCain of Arizona, whose home state faces the worst allegations of VA mismanagement.

The deal follows last week's resignation of Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, who resigned after reports were released of delayed care for military veterans and falsified wait times.

The department has contacted the 1,700 veterans that faced extreme delays for care at a VA hospital in Phoenix. The veterans had been placed on wait lists, and VA employees manipulated the delay times of the wait lists. The Office of Special Counsel will also investigate allegations that VA officials retaliated against 37 whistleblowers.

There has been a public outcry over the mismanagement, and a call to overhaul the system.

If the bill is passed, veterans can choose to take advantage of the Medicare program or receive care at federally-qualified health clinics, Indian Health Centers or Defense Department medical facilities.

Besides allocating $500 million to hire new doctors and nurses, the bill will authorize the VA to sign leases for 26 medical facilities in 18 states and Puerto Rico. An increased number of medical centers will allow the VA to give more care to older veterans, as well as younger veterans who are readjusting to life after returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.

The bill adopted a popular proposal that was already passed by the House that would authorize the VA to fire or demote senior officials who lied about wait times or delayed medical care. However, the worker will have up to seven days to appeal the decision to the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the board has three weeks to make a decision.

"This is not a perfect document," McCain said. 

Nevertheless, he said the deal proves that lawmakers can respond quickly to national discontent. He also implored lawmakers not to delay considering the bill.

"Can we sort of pledge that we are committed to seeing this all the way through? I would urge our colleagues to do that," he said, according to The Washington Post. "Let's not get hung up on certain other aspects of our differences that most people would view as gridlock in this body."

The deal combines different proposals made by politicians in the House and Senate. Republicans support giving the VA stronger powers to fire administrative officials and giving veterans greater opportunities to seek medical care outside of the system, while Democrats want to resurrect a veterans bill that was voted down by Republicans in January.

The current bill will also expand medical care to veterans who were sexually assaulted or raped while in the military, and will provide more tuition to veterans who joined the military after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Additionally, it would create three new commissions to review VA scheduling, as well as provide for technology upgrades and new construction.

Aides in Congress said the bill could be paid for with emergency spending that goes over the spending limit that was approved earlier in the year, which many Republicans may be against.

Tea Party favorite Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), said that he will review the bill, and is "optimistic" that Congress will pass the legislation.

The House, which will review the bill next week, has passed nine bills in the past few months to improve education, health care and employment for veterans.