Consumers Union's Southwest Office (SWO) is one of four advocacy offices in the U.S. maintained by Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. The office today is dedicated to coordinating and implementing e-advocacy campaigns on various consumer issues, with the goal of fostering a national consumer movement. Hundreds of thousands of consumer activits today use the power of the Internet to regularly communicate with local, state and federal decision makers and advocate for changes as a result of the work of this office and its sister offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Yonkers, N.Y.

Founded in 1979 and based in Austin, Texas, the SWO for most of its history represented the interests of consumers in forums where they are typically under-represented, such as the Texas Legislature, state and local administrative agencies, and the judicial system. Our team of advocates fought and won many critical battles for consumers -- often in the face of a powerful industry lobby and long odds. The issues championed by the office included, but are not limited to, insurance, financial services, health care, electricity, telecommunications, housing, environment, open government and privacy.