A FEW DAYS AGO, I TRIED TO GO TO HOUSE.GOV

to get the vote results on the bailout bill but the site wouldn't load. It wasn't just me -

House of Representatives' Web site overwhelmed
updated 5:08 p.m. EDT, Tue September 30, 2008


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The servers hosting the Web sites of the House of Representatives and its members have been overwhelmed with millions of e-mails in the past few days, forcing administrators to implement the "digital version of a traffic cop" to handle the overload.

"This is unprecedented," said Jeff Ventura, communications director for the House's chief administrator.

As millions of people tried to look at the details of the bailout plan, the House.gov system became overwhelmed and many people saw notices on their computer screens saying "this page does not appear."

After the House failed to pass the proposed deal Monday by a vote of 228-205, the e-mail volume surged again, Ventura said.

"Because there were so many e-mails, it was impacting even the presentation of House.gov," he explained.

Ventura said the House.gov Web site experienced a very high number of hits when the 9/11 commission released its final report on the September 11, 2001, terror attacks against the United States, but nothing like what the site has seen in the past few days.