Terri Sewell: “Today is Restoration Tuesday. I rise today to support voting rights for all Americans. I was proud to stand alongside…”

“Today is Restoration Tuesday. I rise today to support voting rights for all Americans. I was proud to stand alongside Members who support the restoration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 recently and to launch the #restorethevote legislative strategy. This national effort will help mobilize support for H.R. 2867, the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015, a bill that I sponsored with Representatives Judy Chu and Linda Sanchez to restore critical Federal oversight to jurisdictions who have a recent history of voter suppression. Since elections are held on Tuesdays, every Tuesday that Congress is in session, like today, we will declare it to be Restoration Tuesday. So today I am speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives on the need to restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Our call for restoring the VRA is urgent, Mr. Speaker. As our colleague John Lewis so eloquently says, there is no other work more important in this or any Congress than protecting the full access of all Americans to the democratic process. If we do not act, the 2016 election will be the first Presidential election in 50 years without the protections offered to millions of voters by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We must act now.…”