Heavy interest in bailout bill slows House Web sites

Intense public interest in the bill outlining the bailout of the nation's financial industry overwhelmed the House of Representatives computer and Internet systems on Monday, making it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to access certain Web sites.

Comment on this article in The Forum.Users trying to access some House sites found it virtually impossible to do so for much of Monday. Internet surfers trying to access the Web site of the House Financial Services Committee frequently received a message saying the committee's site was unavailable. The site contained text of the $700 billion bailout bill, the 2008 Emergency Economic Stabilization Act and explanatory language, which the House defeated on Monday.

Web traffic to sites was three to four times greater on Monday, said Jeff Ventura, a spokesman for the House chief administrative officer. The spike was due to a "dramatic increase" in the number of constituents e-mailing their representatives about the bailout bill and attempts to download the bill, he said.

The surge in Web traffic resulted in the house.gov domain and ancillary sites operating at reduced speed, Ventura said.

Attempts to access the main House Web site also were at times futile as difficult, with messages frequently saying that the page was unavailable. Some House committee Web sites, such as the Armed Services Committee's site, were inaccessible, while others, such as the House Ways and Means Committee's site, had no trouble loading. This is a possible indication that servers hosting the Financial Services Committee, along with other committees, could not process a substantial increase in traffic to the sites hosted on that server.

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