; 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; Whereas maintaining an adequate blood supply is vital to public health; Whereas the American Red Cross estimates that every 2 seconds, someone in the United States needs blood; Whereas the American Medical Association has stated that the ethical ideal for public policy in this area should be to transition away from policy that defers categories of persons based on attributing to all members risks associated with a population and toward policy that defers individual donors on grounds of evidence-based risk assessment; Whereas Congress directed the Secretary of HHS to carry out an initiative to improve awareness of the importance and safety of blood donation and the continued need for blood donations during the COVID–19 public health emergency, through passage of the CARES Act; Whereas numerous Federal officials, including Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams and the HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Brett Giroir, have publicly encouraged people to donate blood during the COVID–19 pandemic; Whereas people who have fully recovered from COVID–19 for at least 2 weeks are encouraged to consider donating convalescent plasma, which contains antibodies against the virus; Whereas convalescent plasma is being evaluated as treatment for patients with serious or immediately life-threatening COVID–19 infections, or those judged by a health care provider to be at high risk of progression to severe or life-threatening disease; and Whereas the FDA is in the process of again reevaluating and considering updating its blood donor deferral policies as new scientific information becomes available, including the feasibility of moving from the existing identity-based deferrals related to group risk behaviors to alternate deferral options, such as the use of individual risk assessments: Now, therefore, be it