The Call On Washington is CBAI’s annual lobbying trip to D.C. where Illinois community bankers express their positions on important issues to their Members of Congress. This year, CBAI brings the 39th Annual Call on Washington right into your office.

The Call on D.C. will be held together with the Independent Community Bankers of America’s Capital Summit. These are the preeminent annual events for federal advocacy for our industry and your community bank. As the new session of Congress begins, our members of Congress need to hear again (or anew) about the importance of community banking, the opportunities and challenges you face, and how Congress can support and encourage the important work that you do for your customers and communities.

This year’s virtual event will be on Tuesday, April 27, 2021, from 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. CT (11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. ET). Information on how to participate will be provided upon registration with the ICBA. Please register directly with the ICBA at the ICBA Capital Summit Registration web page.

There is no cost to attend for CBAI members, so please invite your senior managers and directors to attend.

CBAI will be scheduling virtual meetings with members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation later that week and into the spring and summer. We will alert CBAI members to these U.S. Capital Conversations as they are scheduled and urge you to participate.

Topping the list of federal priorities this spring include:

• Highlighting the lifeline community banks provided to their individual and small business customers and communities during the COVID-19 pandemic;

• The danger and systemic risks posed by Industrial Loan Companies (ILC) and the imperative to close the regulatory supervision loophole;

• The importance of a banking safe harbor for legal cannabis-related businesses;

• The need for tax fairness to promote rural prosperity; and

• Congressional review of the credit union and Farm Credit expansionist agenda.

ICBA Spring 2021 Legislative Priorities

CBAI 2021 Federal Policy Priorities

CBAI is scheduling virtual Federal Capital Conversations with members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation. Congressman Bill Foster (D-11) is kicking off this informative series on Thursday, April 29, 2021, from 12:30-1:00 p.m.

To receive the Zoom link, please email Jessie Schmidt and let us know you plan to participate.

Congressman Foster was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2012 and is the senior Illinois member of the House Financial Services Committee. Congressman Foster also serves on the Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets, and the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions. Read Congressman Foster’s biography.


Despite the disappointment of not being able to meet in-person with members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation in Washington, D.C., the CBAI Governmental Relations team is actively engaged in addressing your concerns about serving serve your customers and communities in these stressful times. At the Federal level, we are in daily (sometimes multiple times a day) contact with each of the regulators and members of the entire Illinois Congressional Delegation discussing what they can do to support community banks. We are also communicating to you, our members, about all of the latest and most relevant information related to these many issues.

CBAI’s face-to-face advocacy efforts will resume just as soon as possible and we look forward to a returning to the opportunities and challenges we face under normal circumstances. In the interim, we are planning necessary alternatives, to keep you involved in the government relations process and in keeping our legislators and regulators informed about the new challenges that you, your customers and communities are facing.

Illinois community bankers are resilient and resourceful and CBAI’s Governmental Relations team is here to help.

If you need to contact us during the COVID-19 crisis, please email us, Governmental Relations Team.