One senior staff member for a subcommittee with oversight over
technology policy issues recalled receiving an e-mail recently that she
had sent several days before. The missive had bounced back with a
message explaining that the mail server had given up after trying to
deliver it 63 times.
The aging mail software often fouls up communications between
Senate offices in Washington and field offices across the
nation.
"Honestly, sometimes it seems like it would be faster to get in
your car and drive the information to the home office than to
use this system," one staffer said.
The unpredictable behavior of the Senate e-mail system has
also created its share of public relations nightmares.
Last year, a longtime Senate press officer e-mailed a news release
to more than 140 reporters. The message somehow got caught in a
vicious loop, mailing itself to all of the recipients every hour for
several days.
"It was a pretty harrowing experience," the press secretary said.
"I nearly got death threats from more than a few reporters,"
the staffer said.
In recent years, the Senate e-mail system has groaned under the
weight of an increasingly tech-savvy electorate. In February 2001,
an avalanche of messages slowed the chamber's e-mail system
for nearly an hour. The month prior, the same e-mail servers
were overwhelmed by a torrent of e-mail following Attorney General John
Ashcroft's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Administrators have since scaled the system to accommodate
large volumes of e-mail, said Tracy Williams, director of technology
development for the Senate Sergeant at Arms Office, which
administers the system.
The challenge now, Williams said, will be to transition to the new Senate e-mail system without causing significant outages or delays.
"Like any big project, it's not without its bumps along the way,
but overall it's going very well," Williams said.
Williams said the goal is to move all Senate offices to the new system by November.
Sources familiar with the project, however, say many senators
seeking reelection this year have refused to make the switch
in their offices until after Election Day.
