“Today the President delivered a powerful and important speech on the serious and growing threat to our democracy and the right to vote.
“Now is the time to act. And this is not, and cannot be, a time for politics as usual.
“It has been more than 100 days since the House of Representatives passed the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. And every day Republicans are allowed to block this bill, the forces trying to undermine our democracy grow stronger.
"It's time for the Senate to act.
“What happens in Congress over the next few weeks will determine whether we continue to have free and fair elections in this nation, or whether we continue to allow one party to systematically destroy America's great experiment.
“We can have democracy or we can have obstructionism. But Republicans have shown that we cannot have it both ways.
"It's time to call the vote. And may Congress protect the right to vote in this country.
"Our millions of members in every state and every congressional district are watching and will remember who stood up for the right to vote and who chose to make politics at this time of great menace."
