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The U.S. House of Representatives Web site was shut down yesterday along with a number of related sites including the Web sites of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts as millions of people went online searching for news about the $700 billion bailout of the financial industry.

Users trying to access the House sites found it impossible to do so for much of Monday. Users trying to access the Web site of the House Financial Services Committee received a message saying the committee's site was unavailable.

The site held the text of the $700 billion bailout bill, the 2008 Emergency Economic Stabilization Act along with explanatory language, which the House defeated on Monday.

Traffic to sites was three to four times the normal amount on Monday, said Jeff Ventura, a spokesman for the House chief administrative officer. The rise in traffic was due to a "dramatic increase" in the number of constituents emailing their representatives about the bailout bill and attempting to download the bill, he said.

The spike in online traffic led to the house.gov domain and ancillary sites operating at slower speeds, Ventura said.

"House computer experts are monitoring the situation and are attempting to address the tremendous increase in Web traffic to the House's Web sites to provide improved access to House Internet services, but expect the delays to last as long as demand remains this high," Ventura said.