On the recordJune 25, 2015
I support the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015, an important step on the road to protecting the right to vote for all Americans. It responds to a recent Supreme Court ruling that rolled back critical voting protections that had proven effective for decades and that Congress had reauthorized several times. This landmark legislation would reaffirm the importance of the vote as a pillar of our democracy and restore a powerful shield to combat voting discrimination. I thank Senator Leahy for his leadership on this bill, and I am proud to be an original cosponsor of a bill that protects access to the ballot box for all American citizens. Mr. President, 50 years ago, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965, legislation that he called ``a triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that has ever been won on any battlefield.'' At the time he signed the bill into law, millions of Americans were denied the right to vote based on the color of their skin. President Johnson called this ``a clear and simple wrong'' and acknowledged that the Voting Rights Act's ``only purpose is to right that wrong.'' With the stroke of a pen, President Johnson enacted a bill that threw open the doors of democracy for all Americans and promised that the precious right to vote would be protected. The United States has had a long and bumpy road to even achieving that promise.…
