(Billings, Mont.) – U.S. Senator Jon Tester, Chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, today attended a Memorial Day ceremony alongside veterans, local officials, and community members in Laurel to honor Montana’s fallen servicemembers. This was the first in-person Memorial Day service at Yellowstone National Cemetery since 2019.

“On Memorial Day, we come together as a nation to recognize the men and women who signed up for service and made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty for our freedoms and liberties,” said Chairman Tester. “These fallen heroes have made this country what it is today, and we would not be here without them. Today, my thoughts are with those who sacrificed their lives to ensure we remain the greatest country in the world. While we can never fully repay the debt we owe to them, let us vow to honor their legacy—and that of their loves ones—today and every day.”

Tester is the only member of the Montana delegation who sits on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, of which he has been a member of since 2007. For years, he has been a champion for veterans in the Senate, working with various Veterans Service Organizations to push critical initiatives to better support veterans and military families—including identifying a path forward on toxic exposure. He recently announced a bipartisan agreement on the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2022—comprehensive, bipartisan legislation to deliver all eras of toxic-exposed veterans their earned health care and benefits under the Department of Veterans Affairs for the first time in the nation’s history.