digital busy signal, he said. As more people gained access to the page and details of the bailout proposal were published in the news media, constituents then started to e-mail their representatives, Ventura explained. We know it's in the millions, he said of the number of e-mails that lawmakers in the House have been receiving. But we have n't counted yet, because when you 're about to get hit by a tidal wave, you do n't count the drops of water in the wave. 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. This morning, our engineers sounded the alarms... and we have installed a digital version of a traffic cop. We enacted stopgaps that we planned for last night. We had hoped we did n't have to. The office of the chief administrative officer of the House of Representatives issued a statement Tuesday saying: This measure has become temporarily necessary to ensure that congressional Web sites are not completely disabled by the millions of e-mails flowing into the system. Engineers are working diligently to accommodate this enormous traffic flow and we appreciate your patience in this matter. Now, when House.gov or individual memberssites begin to get overloaded, a message will come up on the