Whereas, in 1983, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an agency under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), prohibited the donation of blood by any man who has had sex with another man (MSM) at any time since 1977; Whereas, in December 2015, based on recommendations from the HHS Advisory Committee on Blood and Tissue Safety and Availability, the FDA promulgated revised regulations to allow an MSM to donate blood only if he has not been sexually active for the past 12 months; Whereas despite these steps, a double standard remained as the revised policy continued to treat gay and bisexual men differently from others; Whereas, on April 2, 2020, the FDA issued guidance for immediate implementation to address the urgent and immediate need for blood and blood components; Whereas the FDA has changed the recommended deferral period for MSM donors from 12 months to 3 months; Whereas a 3-month deferral policy for gay and bisexual men to donate blood remains overly stringent given the scientific evidence, advanced testing methods, and the safety and quality control measures in place within the different FDA-qualified blood donating centers; Whereas the Williams Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law estimates that, based on the population of eligible and likely donors among the MSM community, lifting the Federal lifetime deferral policy on blood donation by an MSM could result in as many as 4,200,000 newly eligible male donors, of which 360,600 would likely donate and generate 615,300 additional pints of blood; Whereas the increased uptake of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which reduces the likelihood that an HIV-negative individual will acquire HIV, has allowed many more gay and bisexual men to be aware of their HIV-negative status and take steps to effectively eliminate their personal risk of HIV transmission; Whereas more than 4,000 blood drives across the United States have been canceled due to the COVID–19 pandemic, resulting in approximately 130,000 fewer donations