LEXINGTON – Gov. Maura Healey signed a new veterans benefits bill Thursday that she touted as “a big deal,” while Veterans Services Secretary Jon Santiago told a packed town hall meeting that the Holyoke Veterans Home had received its license from the Department of Health.

The state-run facility in Holyoke was hit by scandal in 2020 after a deadly COVID-19 outbreak killed more than 70 veterans living there. Reform of the system was spurred by a 2022 law that required both the Holyoke and Chelsea veterans homes to obtain a DPH license.

“It’s hot off the press that both homes now have a license from the health department, something that people thought was unimaginable, impossible, after COVID-19,” Santiago told attendees at the law-signing ceremony.

The Chelsea Veterans Home received its DPH license last year. The announcement by EOVS coincided with the first 20 residents moving into a newly constructed building there.

Before the signing, Healey said on stage at the Cary Memorial Building in Lexington: “We are so blessed as a nation.”

“That men and women are willing to serve, to come forward, to register and to answer that call. We are also very fortunate that families are willing to support their loved ones while they serve, even though they know, like some in this room, that they may not return,” she said.

Among the provisions of the law is an increase in the federal pension for Gold Star parents and spouses – those who have lost a loved one in the line of duty – to $2,500. The annual rate of $2,000 had not been adjusted in decades.

Santiago recalled his meeting with Holly Shay, a Gold Star mother whose son, U.S. Army Sgt. Jordan Shay, was killed in Iraq. He told the crowd that after the meeting, he realized that the Gold Star pension amount had not been touched in about 20 years.

With Healey’s signature, the bill also eliminates the “bureaucratic” aspects of the Veterans Service Buyback Program, which veterans entering public service jobs had to apply for within 180 days. Senator John Velis said during the Senate session in which the final bill passed that it would eliminate the 180-day window to participate in the program and buy back military service time and provide a grace period for those who can no longer use the program.

Paul Jacques, a Massachusetts firefighter representative who has served in the U.S. Air Force for 22 years and has been deployed to Iraq twice, said the bill would “help a lot of people,” including police officers and firefighters who have not received their buyouts.

“As we all know, in the first 180 days of a career, when you’re young, especially when you get out of the military, you’re not thinking about retirement,” Jacques told the News Service. He added, “At my workplace in Attleboro, we have members for whom this is going to be life-changing.”

The law expands veterans’ access to mental health services for which they are not reimbursed under an existing benefits law – Chapter 115. The new law provides for a “behavioral health benefit” that “covers the costs of necessary outpatient behavioral health examinations, assessments, visits, prescriptions, and other treatments as the Secretary shall establish by regulation.”

In addition, it offers veterans who have served as medics in the military and are now pursuing civilian employment as paramedics the opportunity to skip paramedic training and proceed directly to the exam.

Healey praised the new law as “probably the most comprehensive veterans legislation this state has ever passed.”

The bill is one of only a handful of substantive packages lawmakers have sent to Healey in the past year and a half. The governor said she and Santiago chose to come to Lexington to sign the bill because the city is a “special” place.

“You know, 250 years ago, the entire American experiment, our American democracy, our country was born here,” she said, drawing applause from an auditorium that included local officials such as the Lexington Select Board and members of the Town Assembly.

The Lexington Fire Department chief estimated that about 600 people crowded into the Cary Memorial Building. Among the crowd were members of veterans groups such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Gold Star members, active military personnel and at least two World War II veterans.

One of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, Enoch “Woody” Woodhouse, was on stage as Healey signed the bill. And 102-year-old Caster Salemi of North Attleborough, who served in the Pacific during World War II, sat in the front row.

Salemi “came ashore in the Philippines after MacArthur,” he told the News Service. He said it was “very important” that the state continue to care for its veterans.

“The people who get the most help are those who are most seriously injured. This (also) helps those who are not injured,” Salemi said.

Michael Valila, adjutant of the Massachusetts chapter of Disabled American Veterans, said his organization has 23,000 members in the state, but there are “so, so, so many more” veterans with disabilities in the community. The new law will have a “tremendous impact” on them, he said.

“Anything that helps the veteran is a positive thing,” said John MacGillivray of the Marine Corps League.

Also in the crowd were: Maj. Gen. Gary Keefe, the adjutant general; Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro; Senators John Cronin and Lydia Edwards; and Representatives Michelle Ciccolo, Gerard Cassidy, Margaret Scarsdale, Kelly Pease, Patricia Duffy and Steven Xiarhos, a Gold Star father whose son Nicholas was killed in Afghanistan 15 years ago.

Velis told the crowd that Edwards, an East Boston Democrat who was commissioned as a general officer in the National Guard last year, was about to begin her own military career. He said Edwards “will be leaving next Sunday for training equivalent to her basic training.”

When Healey mentioned the construction of the new Chelsea Veterans Home in the middle of her speech, one of its residents – 84-year-old Marine Corps veteran Phil Tammaro – could hardly contain his excitement.

“Governor, Dr. Jon got us crosswalks at the Soldiers’ Home,” Tammaro called from his seat in the front row, referring to the Governor’s Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Jon Santiago.

“I’ve lived up here 23 years,” Tammaro told the News Service after the ceremony. “I’ve been trying to get crosswalks. Dr. Jon got in charge of the veterans. The first thing I said was, ‘Doctor, I’ve lived up here 23 years and I’m trying to get crosswalks.’ He said, ‘Phil, I’ll have them for you within six days.'”

“Six days later, there are zebra crossings everywhere,” Tammaro said.