Obama, Boehner speak; public bellows: Capitol Hill phones jammed

Congressional offices opened Tuesday to a deluge of feedback from constituents, after President Obama used a prime-time speech to urge the public to make their voices heard on the debt ceiling debate.

Moments after dueling speeches by the president and Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner, a number of congressional websites were overloaded with traffic. Some were still slow to load, if at all, more than 12 hours later.

Then Tuesday morning, offices received a memo from the Capitol Call Center reporting that House telephone circuits were “near capacity” due to the high volume of external calls.

A spokesman for the chief administrative officer said that at its peak, House offices received a combined 40,000 phone calls -- twice the typical volume. Some callers got only a busy signal, but that the amount was not significant, said Dan Weiser, the spokesman.

The “sluggishness” of certain House websites was attributable to outside vendors that some members use.

“We did step in and help alleviate some of the Web traffic problems as soon as we realized what was going on,” Weiser said.

A staffer to one California Republican said that office lines were jammed, and suspected coordination by organizations like AARP, MoveOn and “tea party”-aligned groups.

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat who is up for reelection in 2012, issued a statement saying his office had received “hundreds of calls.”

“Most folks just want Congress to act. I agree,” he said.

But not all members were affected; the office of Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) reported no problems, and normal call volume.

Though the debate over raising the nation’s debt limit has been on in earnest for weeks, Obama for the first time issued a call to action Monday night. Conservative groups like FreedomWorks, founded by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, quickly mobilized their supporters.

“I’m asking you all to make your voice heard. If you want a balanced approach to reducing the deficit, let your member of Congress know,” Obama said in his address to the nation, carried by the major networks. “If you believe we can solve this problem through compromise, send that message.”

“There’s certainly anecdotal evidence that many Americans are doing just that,” Press Secretary Jay Carney said at his Tuesday afternoon briefing. He did not know if there was an unusual number of calls to the White House.

Katherine Skiba and Richard Simon contributed to this report.