House websites slowed by e-mails on bailout bill

Public interest and concern over the bailout bill has caused a significant slowdown on the website of the House of Representatives.

E-mail traffic in recent days has increased in volume by three or four times the normal rate, according to Jeff Ventura, a spokesman for the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer.

{mosads}He attributed the resulting slowdown to “the extraordinary interest in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and a dramatic increase in the number of constituents e-mailing their members of Congress surrounding the bill.”

On Sunday night, after a draft of the bill was put on the House Speaker’s website and the sites of the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees, those sites could not be accessed because of the increased traffic.

But even before Sunday, members had been receiving a high volume of constituent e-mails.

Ventura could not recall another time that the House website slowed down so significantly due to public interest in an issue. “This is a whopper. This is historic,” Ventura said. He noted that the bailout plan has attracted global interest.

He also predicted delays would continue.

“House computer experts are monitoring the situation and are attempting to address the tremendous increase in Web traffic to the House's websites to provide improved access to House Internet services, but expect the delays to last as long as demand remains this high,” Ventura said in a statement.

Frederick Hill, spokesman for Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), said that his office had received 642 e-mails regarding the bailout package by Friday. Issa voted against the bailout and was one of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who rallied against it on the floor on Monday.

Peter Kovar, chief of staff to Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), said that his office has seen a substantial increase in the number of e-mails, phone calls and letters in recent days. Frank is the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and a key figure in negotiations on the bailout plan. Frank voted for the bill.

E-mail volume also has been noticeably higher than normal in the Senate, according to sergeant at arms spokeswoman Becky Daugherty.

However, she said, the Senate’s servers so far had not been overwhelmed.