Tester Statement on Anniversary of American Rescue Plan

U.S. Senator Jon Tester today released the following statement on the anniversary of the American Rescue Plan being signed into law:

“We passed the American Rescue Plan to help our health care professionals respond to the pandemic and to provide the targeted resources to Montana small businesses, schools, and communities to safely reopen. A year later, Montana’s unemployment rate is the lowest in history, students are back in classrooms, and our economy is back up and running at full speed. That’s no coincidence, and I’m going to keep working aggressively every day to defend the health and jobs of families across our state.”

Tester was the only member of Montana’s delegation to vote for the American Rescue Plan.

In 2020, Tester held hundreds of meetings with Montana’s workers, small business owners, frontline health care workers, educators, Tribes, and local officials to solicit input about what Montanans need to make it through the pandemic. Tester used that input to help craft the American Rescue Plan, which provided $20 billion in vaccine funding, $382 million for Montana K-12 schools, legislation to restore long-distance service to the Empire Builder Amtrak route, and billions for small businesses, rural hospitals and the Department of Veterans Affairs.