(Big Sandy, Mont.) – Following sustained efforts from U.S. Senator Jon Tester to improve and expand Butte-area veterans’ access to quality Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) health care and services, the Senator announced today the Charlie Dowd VA Clinic in Butte has been expanded by 3,900 feet and is now offering physical therapy and audiology services.

As Chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Tester secured funds for this state-of-the-art clinic that opened its doors in April 2022, and called on VA Secretary Denis McDonough directly to further expand the space to provide physical therapy and audiology services that veterans can now access.

“Montana veterans deserve the best possible health care and services, and that starts with ensuring the facilities that serve them are top of the line,” said Tester. “This expansion of the Charlie Dowd VA Clinic will deliver Butte-area veterans access to quality physical therapy and audiology services all under one roof, and I’m proud to have worked to secure the new space and services for our men and women who served. I’ll keep fighting to expand veterans’ access to health care—no matter where they live.”

Space was added to the clinic and remodeled to create a physical therapy rehabilitation gym and an audiology treatment area, and Butte-area veterans can now access these expanded services.

Tester worked for years to successfully secure funds for the Charlie Dowd VA Clinic as the only member of the Montana delegation to vote for both of the federal spending bills that made this new clinic possible. In his role as Chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Tester also called on VA Secretary Denis McDonough to further expand the clinic and offer more services for veterans. As a result of Tester’s push, VA agreed to expand the space by several thousand square feet to provide additional physical therapy and audiology services.

The Charlie Dowd VA Clinic is more than four times the size of the old facility it replaced, and offers a range of services including primary care, mental health, a dedicated women’s health room, telehealth primary care, and now physical therapy and audiology services to more than 1,700 veterans. Tester championed the bipartisan effort to rename the new clinic after Montana World War II hero Charlie Dowd—Montana’s last surviving Pearl Harbor survivor who passed in March 2023.

A staunch advocate of expanding and improving health care for Butte-area veterans, Tester also led the decades-long push alongside local community leaders and veterans to secure the funds necessary to get the Southwest Montana Veterans Home project off the ground and open.

As Chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Tester has led the way in expanding veterans’ access to care in Montana—securing resources and federal approval to build new and modernized facilities across the state. Through years of focused work with multiple Administrations of both parties, and working across the aisle in Washington, D.C. and with Montana communities, Tester’s efforts resulted in 13 new facilities opening or in planning for construction in the last several years—two at Fort Harrison in Helena, Missoula, Bozeman, Great Falls, Havre, two in Butte, Hamilton, Kalispell, two in Miles City, and Lewistown.