Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) released the following statement after nearly every Senate Republican voted to block debate on her bill, S. 4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act:

“Almost every Senate Republican just voted to block debate on S. 4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. It is now crystal clear—Senate Republicans will make it impossible to reach the 60 votes needed to overcome the filibuster and pass this critical voting rights reform.

“The choice is simple. We either make commonsense reforms to the filibuster or we let extremist politicians continue to erect barriers to the ballot box in states across this nation.

“Our democracy is at stake. If protecting the sacred right to vote isn’t worth reforming an archaic procedural rule, what is? We have no other choice. We must reform the filibuster and we must do it now.”