(U.S. Senate) - The U.S. Senate today passed a bipartisan government funding agreement that strengthens the VA for Montana veterans and delivers a new C-130 aircraft apron for the Montana Air National Guard. This agreement is the result of weeks of negotiating between the House and Senate.
Tester secured additional funding for VA health care and for the VA Caregiver Support Program, which Tester recently expanded to veterans of all eras. The compromise bill also includes Tester's amendment to ...
(U.S. Senate) - During Suicide Prevention Month, Ranking Member Jon Tester is challenging the Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) to ramp up its efforts to connect every veteran in need with mental health care.
In a letter to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie, Tester urges the VA to deploy more of its mental health care and suicide prevention resources to at-risk and vulnerable veterans.
"With the renewed focus on enrolling veterans to receive care at VA as they transition from active duty, it was p...
(Big Sandy, Mont.) - President Donald Trump has signed U.S. Senator Jon Tester's 19th bipartisan bill into law.
Tester's Veterans Providing Healthcare Transition Improvement Act will ensure all disabled veterans who are newly hired as VA physicians, physician assistants, registered nurses, chiropractors, podiatrists, optometrists, and dentists will not have to face the financial hardship of taking unpaid leave to receive necessary medical treatment.
"Our law helps disabled veterans find a goo...
(U.S. Senate) - Ranking Member Jon Tester today screened two nominees tasked with ensuring that the Department of Veterans Affairs runs smoothly for America's veterans.
Tester sat down with both Tamara Bonzanto, nominee to be Assistant Secretary of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection, and James Gfrerer, nominee to be Assistant Secretary of Information and Technology, before today's hearing to ask them tough questions about their resumes and visions for the VA.
"You both have been nomin...
U.S. Senators Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Representatives Phil Roe (TN-01) and Tim Walz (MN-01) are urging the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to begin clinical trials to better understand the potential benefits or dangers of medical cannabis use.In a letter to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie, the members ask him to begin a large-scale study as soon as possible, so veterans using medical cannabis to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain can better understand ...
(U.S. Senate)-U.S. Senator Jon Tester has sent his 19th bill to President Donald Trump's desk to be signed into law.Tester's bill, the Veteran Transition Improvement Act, will ensure all newly hired VA physicians, physician assistants, registered nurses, chiropractors, podiatrists, optometrists, dentists and expanded-function dental auxiliaries who are disabled veterans will not have to face the financial hardship of taking unpaid leave to receive necessary medical treatment."I will keep working...
(U.S. Senate) - The U.S. Senate unanimously passed Ranking Member Jon Tester's bipartisan bill to strengthen veterans' access to substance abuse and mental health treatment through Veterans Treatment Courts.
Tester's Veterans Treatment Court Improvement Act allows for the hiring of 50 additional Veterans Justice Outreach Specialists across the nation to work with Veterans Treatment Courts and help provide timely access to VA services. Veterans Treatment Courts remove veterans from the regular c...
(U.S. Senate) - U.S. Senators Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) are taking the VA to task following a new report detailing the Department's mismanagement of the initiative that provides support to caregivers of seriously injured post-9/11 veterans.
Tester and Murray called for an investigation following news last year that the VA was dropping veterans and their caregivers from the Caregiver Support Program with little or no notice. The VA Inspector General audited the Program, whi...
(Missoula, Mont.) - U.S. Senator Jon Tester today secured major wins for Montana in an annual national security bill.
President Donald Trump today signed the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act into law. Tester successfully included funding in the bipartisan bill to replace the aging Vietnam-era "Huey" helicopters at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, to improve the infrastructure for the Air Force's fleet of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), and to build a new aircraft apr...
(Big Sandy, Mont.) - Ranking Member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) are fighting to make it faster and easier for rural veterans to appeal their claims for disability benefits within the VA.
Tester and Rounds are calling on the VA and Board of Veterans' Appeals to make sure that rural veterans are able to appeal their disability rating using video hearings in local VA facilities when they can't travel hundreds of miles to be a...
(Big Sandy, Mont.) - Following a ProPublica investigation suggesting outside political influence on policy decisions at the Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA), U.S. Senator Jon Tester is leading the fight to ensure the VA is maintaining its focus on serving the best interests of the nation's veterans.
In a sweeping investigation that turned up hundreds of internal documents, ProPublica reports that three unofficial, unelected political advisors, none of whom are veterans, have considerable sw...
(Big Sandy, Mont.) - Ranking Member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Jon Tester is taking the VA to task to ensure a quick and smooth rollout of his landmark, bipartisan VA MISSION Act.
Tester is telling VA Secretary Robert Wilkie to quickly establish community care networks, which will include local providers who will treat veterans who rely on community care through Tester's VA MISSION Act. While the VA has a full year to implement the new Veterans Community Care Program, delays in ...
(U.S. Senate)-The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee this week debated six bipartisan bills authored by Ranking Member Jon Tester.
During a legislative hearing, VA leaders and veteran advocates gave feedback and lent their support to various bills that will improve care for veterans and hold the VA accountable.
Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act
Tester's bipartisan Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act guarantees that veterans who served off the shores of Vietnam and were exposed to toxin...
(U.S. Senate) - Ranking Member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Jon Tester is leading the fight to protect millions of veterans from political agendas threatening the VA's ability to deliver health care and benefits.
Following reports of political appointees pushing partisan agendas at the VA, Tester called on VA Acting Secretary Peter O'Rourke to stop reassigning and removing career civil servants without political ties. Tester is now leading the call for an investigation into politic...
(U.S. Senate) - U.S. Senators Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) today introduced bipartisan legislation to improve VA outreach, health care and benefits for Native American veterans.
The Senators introduced the VA Tribal Advisory Committee Act to establish a VA Advisory Committee on Tribal and Indian Affairs. The Committee will facilitate communication and understanding between the VA and Tribal governments to better address the unique barriers Native America...
(U.S. Senate) - Ranking Member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Jon Tester today voted to confirm Robert Wilkie, President Trump's nominee to be VA Secretary.
"Mr. Wilkie has experience and a strong commitment to veterans and their families that should serve our men and women in Montana and across our nation," said Tester. "Veterans need Mr. Wilkie as the VA implements our ten bipartisan VA reform bills that we have gotten signed into law, especially as the VA implements our VA MISSION...
(Great Falls, Mont.) - U.S. Senator Jon Tester is using his role as Ranking Member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee to make sure that the VA meets the health care needs of Montana veterans as it implements his landmark VA MISSION Act.
Tester today held a meeting with veterans in Great Falls to discuss the timeline of the recently passed legislation, one of 16 of Tester's bills that President Trump has signed into law.
Tester wrote the VA MISSION Act with Republican Chairman Johnny Isa...
(U.S. Senate)-Ranking Member Jon Tester today joined Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee in approving President Trump's VA Secretary nominee Robert Wilkie, sending Wilkie's nomination to a full confirmation vote by the U.S. Senate."America's veterans need and deserve a strong leader who will tackle the VA's biggest challenges head-on," said Tester. "Mr. Wilkie has experience and a commitment to veterans and their families that should serve our men and women in Mon...
(Big Sandy, Mont.) - U.S. Senators Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.) are honoring the groundbreaking service of the women who connected American and French forces on the front lines during World War I.
The Senators' bipartisan Hello Girls Congressional Gold Medal Act will award the women of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, dubbed the Hello Girls, with the Congressional Gold Medal for their service and subsequent 60 year fight to be recognized as veterans.
"The Hello Girls were faster ...
U.S. Senators Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., chairman and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, today released the following statement announcing their support for Robert Wilkie's nomination to be secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA):
"Mr. Wilkie is a respected, talented nominee for VA secretary, and I am proud to support his nomination," said Isakson. "The Department of Veterans Affairs needs a leader who will help move the VA away f...
