With Senate Democrat Max Baucus’ Finance Committee taking the lead on the health care bill, Hawai‘i Sen. Daniel Inouye has remained mostly silent on the issue, his representatives said Tuesday.

Lori Hamamoto, Inouye’s press secretary for national and international issues, and Ronald Sakoda, the senator’s Kaua‘i field representative, said in an interview at The Garden Island office that Inouye has yet to make up his mind.

“He is waiting to see … what the (Finance) Committee comes up with,” Hamamoto said.

Sakoda described health care reform as a “convoluted item” but said he expected “something’s going to pass.”

Sakoda said Inouye believes “let’s get something down and from there, if it’s a good product, we can fix it.”

He said a “decent shell” could be enough to earn consideration even if the proposed bill is “far from perfection.”

Inouye will be back in the Aloha State during Congress’ August recess starting next Tuesday for about three weeks, his representatives said.

The senator will briefly be on Kaua‘i on Aug. 26 for an event at the Kukui‘ula Small Boat Harbor, they said.

• Michael Levine, assistant news editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or mlevine@kauaipubco.com