10 CONSUMER FEDERATION OF AMERICA 2018 ANNUAL REPORT Legislative and Regulatory Communications CFA’s principal advocacy strategy was communicating information and viewpoints to members of Congress, the Administration, and regulators. While many of these communications took place in individual conversations, we also frequently submitted letters, comments, or testimony to Congress, the White House, federal regulatory agencies, state regulatory agencies, and international government bodies. During the course of the year, we submitted 217 of these written communications, often with allied organizations. Consumer Lobby Day CFA worked with eight other national consumer groups to organize the second annual Consumer Lobby Day in 2018. The event included 143 participants (about 100 of whom were from state or local organizations) who participated in 215 meetings with Senate and House offices. It was so successful that the groups pledged $125,000 to support next year’s CLD, and leftover funds were used to support High Cost Lending Lobby Day in November 2018. Media CFA’s main link to consumers, and an important means of influencing legislation and policymaking, is the media. In 2018, we issued 116 press releases, held 8 press conferences, and published 21 op-ed essays, letters-to-the editor, and blogs on major websites. CFA appeared in over 10,000 publications, over 1,000 of which were in the top 100 print, Internet, and trade publications. CFA also expanded its social media presence. We sent 2,786 Tweets that received 1,824,400 impressions. Our Facebook page followers increased to over 4,500, and our 352 Facebook posts had a reach of 100,412 views.