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Bailout Bill Overwhelmes House Internet Servers

September 30, 2008 4:50 PM

Debate over -- and opposition to -- the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 has caused such a huge amount of internet traffic to the House of Representatives' "Write Your Representative" feature  this week, the Chief Administrative Officer of the House has been forced to install an electronic traffic cop in the program to tell letter-writers to come back later.

"The House of Representatives is currently experiencing an extraordinarily high amount of email traffic," it reads. "The Write Your Representative function is therefore intermittently available. While we realize communicating to your Members of Congress is critical, we suggest attempting to do so at a later time, when demand is not so high. System engineers are working to resolve this issue and we appreciate your patience."

Jeff Ventura, a spokesman for the Chief Administrative Officer for the House of Representatives, tells ABC News that starting Sunday night, when the draft bill of the compromise legislation on the $700 billion bailout bill was posted on line, "immediately we saw a degradation in service."

Normally, Ventura says, "a bill sits out there in the public sphere for awhile. Here there was a limited amount of time for folks to see the legislation."

On Monday, the day of the vote, the House servers "saw a tremendous slowdown in service," Ventura says.

Part of that was people looking at the vote count, but there was also "an extraordinary number of folks going to this application 'Write Your Representative.'"

What is "extraordinary"?

"Millions," Ventura says. "We haven't done a statistical bean counting. That's a bit like looking at a tidal wave, sitting there trying to count the number of drops of in the water before it hits you."

It wasn't just the Write Your Representative feature that was impacted, it was House.gov, the websites of individual members if Congress, the websites of House Committees. "Once the vote hit, users who went to House.gov experienced an incredible slowness or a blank page," Ventura says.

The site did not crash. "That's like saying a phone line is dead when all you're getting is a busy signal," says Ventura.

Last night the Chief Administrative Office had an emergency meeting with technical and computer engineers. They monitored the situation over night, and then again at 6 am this morning. But even at sunrise, "server activity was still off the charts."

The decision was made to add what Ventura calls a "traffic cop," allowing some folks to use the "Write Your Representative" feature, but not enough so as to put the rest of the House server in peril.

Ventura agrees that the House server will have to be upgraded to get accustomed to this level of high traffic. "If this is sort of your barometer of what a landmark legislative event is, clearly you want to scale up to that level," he says, "probably in the not-too-distant future."

- jpt

September 30, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (39)

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The 10 amendment to the constitution of the United States has been ignored (called treason) with the government turning us into the Ununited Socialist States of America. They should be tarred, feathered and shipped off to Cuba.

Posted by: R Allen | Oct 3, 2008 3:16:56 PM

Thursday, 10/2/2008
Vote NO on this bailout nonsense.
700 Billion + is too much.

You could bail out the people on Main St. for much less $$$$

Posted by: Linda | Oct 2, 2008 7:53:18 PM

I think it is convenient that we cannot get through to write our Representatives on this important issue. The bailout is a pill I can swallow, but once again our government has proven they are not looking out for the American people. If they were, this bill would be about the bailout and only about the bailout. Instead they have taken it from 100+ pages to over 400 pages loading it up with hidden spending and hidden agenda. This year I am voting for ANYONE who isn't currently in the House. In this case the devil you don't know has to be better than the devil you have been burnt by over and over and over again.

Posted by: RogerHuston | Oct 2, 2008 7:03:48 PM

For those of you who do not know, 25% of the SEVEN-HUNDRED-BILLION-DOLLARS is going to foreign investors. Its amazing to me how congressmen are so determined to vote for this bailout, despite the fact that most of their constituents are against it. They act as though we are children who do not know any better and cannot think for ourselves, so they go ahead and make the decision that will benefit them. If the bill passes, it means that we will continue to work our butts off lining their pockets(through taxes) while they use every loophole they can come up with to legally avoid paying taxes.

Posted by: Researcher | Oct 1, 2008 11:35:49 AM

I'm a capitalist. You invest poorly, you go hungry.

Life is tough, it's even tougher when you're stupid.

Posted by: Duane | Oct 1, 2008 9:57:19 AM

When the country needs to act on such an important bi-partisan issue, why would Nancy Pelosi insert such demeaning and politically biased rhetoric right before the actual House vote? Stupidity probably!

Posted by: Bob Plotkin | Oct 1, 2008 9:23:16 AM

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH---LETS SEE HOW MANY HAVE THE GUTS TO JUST SAY---(NO) AND I MEAN BOTH PARTIES.

Posted by: rodney | Oct 1, 2008 8:02:46 AM

THIS TIME OUR POLITITIONS BETTER LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE----ALL THE THIEVES ARE GRABBING ALL THEY CAN BEFORE THE ELECTON OF NEW ADMINISTRATION.

Posted by: rodney | Oct 1, 2008 7:58:11 AM

WE DONT HAVE AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE BUT WE CAN BAIL OUT A BUNCH OF THIEVES.
MAYBE WE ALL SHOULD MARCH ON THE CAPITOL

Posted by: rodney | Oct 1, 2008 7:50:39 AM

TAKE 700 BILLION AND INVEST IT IN ALTERNATE ENERGY--AND WE WILL ALL BE A LOT BETTER OFF-----IF I MESS UP I PAY -WHY ARE WE EVEN THINKING ABOUT THESE GUYS---NO BAILOUT PLEASE ---MAYBE A FEW ARRESTS AND JAIL TIME.TAKE ALL THESE GUYS HAVE FIRST.WE CAN DO THIS FOR LOSERS BUT THE RESPONSIBLE HARD WORKING CAN GO TO HELL. AND PAY THE BILL

Posted by: rodney | Oct 1, 2008 7:44:29 AM

I hope the house votes NO! again! I am totally against allowing these rich CEOs to gamble with our money when they are mllionaires and billionares! LET THEM USE THEIR OWN MONEY! By their own admission, "they do NOT know if the bailout will work." Many of them have stated that they are in "uncharted teritory." They caused this mess, let them clean it up!

Posted by: Researcher | Oct 1, 2008 2:25:31 AM

All senators have at least one state local office, write of call them. Better yet both.

Posted by: Ken | Sep 30, 2008 11:25:28 PM

The Write Your Rep page says:

"The House of Representatives is currently experiencing an extraordinarily high amount of email traffic. The Write Your Representative function is therefore intermittently available. While we realize communicating to your Members of Congress is critical, we suggest attempting to do so at a later time, when demand is not so high. System engineers are working to resolve this issue and we appreciate your patience."

"Intermittently available"? That sounds like it would be an improvement ...

Posted by: Belle Starr | Sep 30, 2008 9:27:15 PM

@ttn abc

typo: Overwhelmes ("overwhelms")

Posted by: Spelling Police | Sep 30, 2008 9:16:01 PM

"Please don't vote for Obama."
-----
Yes, please DON'T.

Posted by: Belle Starr | Sep 30, 2008 8:55:43 PM

Paulson is worth 700 million, he want to make that 700 billion

Posted by: Underdog | Sep 30, 2008 8:27:37 PM

Paulson states we need this now, or yesterday, when he states he saw this coming.

What he see is coming is an honest man called Obama, and he want to take all the marbles and go home before the game is over.

Now with the monoploy of BANKS, we the people will suffer..

After paying for the bad loan practice that the banks tricked a lot of people with.

Preditory lending.

Posted by: Underdog | Sep 30, 2008 8:16:39 PM

Paulson is stupid as a FOX..

and I take it back that Bush is stupid.

I want to go study these guys.

We are stupid ones.

Posted by: Underdog | Sep 30, 2008 8:13:45 PM

Opps,

I just found this link,
why would a guy who made 38 million go to a job paying only 175,000.

make you want to say HMMMMMMMMM..

He signed off on 13 billion in cash to be sent to Iraq and it dissappeared..

Now watch that 700 billion dissapear.

He should be a magician..

I want to go to school at the class of Paulson Univ.

Posted by: Underdog | Sep 30, 2008 8:12:00 PM

I need answers,

Did PBS report that Paulson was worth 500 million dollars.

What is his worth.

If this is true, it is no wonder he wants control of another 700 billion.

Please respond if you know the TRUTH.

Posted by: Underdog | Sep 30, 2008 8:04:39 PM

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