BOSTON, Mass. — The Massachusetts Senate has passed a bill to expand veterans' benefits this week.

The HERO Act would boost support for the hundreds of thousands of people across the state who served, including nearly 30,000 women veterans and thousands of LGBTQ+ veterans.

It would increase benefits for disabled veterans, bolster support for businesses who hire veterans, update the definition of a veteran and codify medical and dental benefits.

Sen. John Velis, a veteran and the Senate chairman of the Veterans Committee, says the goal is to protect veterans, active service members and their families.

“When a service member is deployed and you've got children, they're probably going through some things, right?” he said. “Whatever other mental health concerns they've got going on, there’s probably that too, their mom or dad is deployed and in many instances in harm's way. What we also did is we mandated that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education reach out to these students, check in with them, have meetings with them, see if there's any additional services above and beyond that they need."

Gov. Healey introduced the legislation in November.

The House also passed its version, so both chambers will now move to reconcile the differences before sending the bill to the governor’s desk.