Senate Acts to Boost Benefits, Modernize Services, and Promote Inclusivity for Veterans

Upper chamber builds on and approves historic commitment to people who have served
Boston — Dean of the Massachusetts Senate Marc R. Pacheco (D-Taunton) announces that the Senate unanimously passed legislation to boost support for hundreds of thousands of individuals across the state who have served in the military, including efforts to support women veterans.

The comprehensive legislative package, H.4671, An Act Honoring, Empowering and Recognizing Our Servicemembers and Veterans (HERO Act), would increase benefits for disabled veterans, bolster support for businesses that hire veterans, update the definition of a veteran, expand the scope of the Veterans Equality Review Board, and codify medical and dental benefits.

“The Commonwealth has long been a leader in supporting those who serve and have served,” said Senator Pacheco. “This legislation bolsters those supports by including protections and benefits for both active-duty servicemembers and veterans, along with their families.”

The Senate’s legislation builds on the historic legislative package filed by the Healey-Driscoll Administration by including additional provisions which would:
• Require a public school district to provide support services to a military-connected student when a parent or guardian is called to active duty.
• Create a military spouse liaison to help military spouses with obtaining employment and child care, and deal with other issues facing military spouses.
• Allow Gold Star Family spouses to remarry without the penalty of losing their annuity benefit.
Highlights of the Senate Bill include:

Benefit Expansion
• Expands access to Behavioral Health Treatment: Allows veterans to be reimbursed for visits to outpatient behavioral health providers.
• Increases the Disabled Veteran Annuity: Increases the annual annuity for veterans with a 100% service-connected disability, surviving spouses, or Gold Star Parents from $2,000 to $2,500.
• Increases the Vet-Hire Tax Credit: Increases to $2,500 a tax credit for small businesses hiring chronically unemployed or low-income veterans. Eligible veterans include those receiving SNAP benefits, chronically unemployed veterans, and unemployed service-connected disabled veterans.
• Increases access to the Active-Duty Buyback program: Lengthens the timeframe for veterans in public service to participate in the Active-Duty Service Buyback program and allows retroactive participation for veterans who missed the buyback opportunity. This program will enable veterans to purchase up to four years of active-duty service time toward their state retirement.
• Prevents the "COLA Cliff": Ensuring that a cost-of-living adjustment in Social Security benefits will not affect veterans' eligibility for Chapter 115 benefits in the middle of the state fiscal year.  
• Increases Local Flexibility for Veterans Property Tax Exemptions: Creates two separate local options. The first allows municipalities to double the veteran property tax exemption without doubling all other exemption clauses. The second ties the annual property tax abatement amount to inflation, allowing exempted property tax amounts to increase with inflation.
• Eliminates the Fee for Specialty License Plates for Veterans: Waives specialty license plate fees on specialty veteran license plates and creates a new woman veteran license plate decal.
• Allows municipalities to increase the property tax exemption of a veteran in exchange for volunteer services.
Also included in the bill is an amendment filed by Senator Pacheco ensuring equity for Commonwealth employees serving in the armed and uniformed services, regardless of where their original enlistment took place.

“The men and women serving or acting as reservists in the armed and uniformed services while working for our Commonwealth have shown a clear dedication to service of the public good,” said Senator Pacheco. “We must ensure that our employees of the Commonwealth are given equal treatment and compensation, regardless of where their original enlistment took place.”

Under current state law, only those who work for the Commonwealth who are in the service of the armed forces of the Commonwealth or a reserve component of the armed forces of the United States are entitled to receive pay without loss of ordinary remuneration as a public employee during service in the uniformed services, along with restricting the loss of any seniority or any accrued vacation leave, sick leave, personal leave, compensation time, or earned overtime.

Senator Pacheco’s amendment, which passed with a unanimous roll call vote, changes the language of that existing law to apply protections to those serving in the armed and uniformed services regardless of where their original enlistment took place.

“Neighboring states of Vermont and Rhode Island have adopted similar protections for employees of their states who serve on other states national guards, such as our very own here in Massachusetts,” said Senator Pacheco. “This amendment gives those same protections to the employees of our Commonwealth.”

Commitment to Inclusivity and Greater Representation
• Broadens the Chapter 115 Definition of Veteran: Aligns the state Chapter 115 program definition of a veteran with the United States Department of Veteran Affairs definition. This change allows more veterans to be eligible for annuity, Chapter 115 benefits, access to the Massachusetts Veterans Homes, and other state-provided benefits. This only applies to EOVS programs and does not affect any other agency or entity.  
• Expands the Scope of the Veterans Equality Review Board (VERB): Expands the scope of the Board beyond ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ discharges to include discharges related to Military Sexual Trauma, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury, mental health conditions, or HIV discharges. 
• Expands the definition of a veteran dependent: Expanding the Chapter 115 definition of "dependent" to support more dependents based on the Family Court definition.
• Updates Dependent Residency Requirements to Align with Current Practices: Updating dependent residency requirements to align with current practices.
Modernization of Veterans Services
• Codifies Dental Assistance Benefits: Ensuring veterans receive essential dental care by codifying dental benefits for Chapter 115 recipients.
• Codifies Medical Assistance Benefits: Providing consistent care to veterans by codifying medical assistance benefits.
• Codifies Authority for Veterans Cemeteries: Ensuring proper management and care of veteran cemeteries by codifying the authority for EOVS to continue administering and maintaining the state’s two Memorial Veterans Cemeteries.
• Modernizes statute language for inclusivity and standardization: Revise Chapters 115 and 115A to ensure gender-neutral and inclusive language while removing antiquated references.
• Allows municipalities to deliver Chapter 115 benefits by direct deposit.
• Initiates a Study on the Use of Alternative Therapies for Veteran Mental Health Disorders: Establishing a working group to study the potential benefits of alternative therapies, such as psilocybin, in treating veterans suffering from mental health disorders.
Another amendment to the bill, co-sponsored by Senator Pacheco, establishes a special commission to study post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The commission will consist of representatives from the public and private health sectors, as well as representatives from state government, the military, public safety leaders, and advocacy organizations, to assess the state of PTSD care and support services in the Commonwealth. The commission will submit a report of findings, along with recommendations, no later than July 1, 2025.

“In recent years, we have begun to further understand the impacts of PTSD, not only on those who suffer from it, but also on their loved ones,” said Senator Pacheco. “This commission will allow us to further understand how we can best support those who suffer from the effects of this condition.”

After separate versions of the bill having been passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives, the chambers will now move to reconcile the differences before sending the bill to the governor’s desk.