The Defense Department will require U.S. troops to get COVID-19 vaccines starting mid-September or as soon as the Food and Drug Administration approves it -- "whichever comes first," according to a memo released Monday by the Pentagon.

The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee voted to pass U.S. Senator Jerry Moran’s (R-Kan.) Guaranteeing Healthcare Access to Personnel Who Served (GHAPS) Act.

The year 2020 was hard on all of us, but it was harder on some than others. The United States lost an estimated 10 million jobs during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is requiring all medical personnel to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the first federal agency-wide mandate of its kind. The requirement comes as the highly contagious Delta variant sweeps the nation and accounts for the vast majority of COVID cases.