Capitol phones still ringing
For the third day in a row, the Capitol switchboard was overloaded with calls Wednesday from constituents trying to reach Members to make their voices heard on health care reform.
House administrators estimated that the switchboard was being bombarded with about 40,000 calls per hour and that another 40,000 callers per hour were getting busy signals.
"It's actually been worse today," Jeff Ventura, spokesman for the Chief Administrator's Office, said Thursday. He said the number was up to 50,000 calls per hour.
The barrage started after radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday afternoon gave his listening audience the Capitol switchboard phone number and encouraged them to call it. At the end of the show, Rush bragged that the switchboard had shut down.
Ventura told Roll Call on Wednesday that the call volume is roughly 10 times what the switchboard usually receives.
-- Daniel Newhauser, Congress.org
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