WASHINGTON _ Jonas Murphy was taking a message about a Cabinet nominee, and Noel Walker was explaining her boss's opposition to the president's travel ban when Sen. Bob Casey's third phone line rang.
Voicemail boxes were full of messages awaiting the attention of interns, handwritten letters were piling up, and at any minute the office was expecting Sonny Perdue, nominee for agriculture secretary.
"OK, what's the issue, sir?" Walker said into a telephone receiver on a recent afternoon while another legislative aide took a message on another line.
That's when Alexander Frieden and two friends walked in wanting to express their views to the Pennsylvania Democrat. Press secretary Jacklin Rhoads stopped to hear them out. Earlier, Casey himself took a half-hour shift on the phones, surprising callers who expected to leave messages.
"It's all hands on deck," Rhoads said.
This is how it has been in many a Senate office since Donald Trump was elected: Lawmakers have been inundated with phone calls, emails, tweets, letters and in-person visits from constituents wanting to express their views _ often, their outrage _ over presidential orders, Cabinet nominations and congressional actions.
Casey has been receiving up to 1,200 calls a day in his Washington and Pennsylvania offices, about eight times the normal volume, aides said.
In some Republican offices, where activists are more strongly focused, call volume has increased tenfold, aides said. Most simply ask to have their views heard, but some use the most vulgar curses to threaten and abuse staffers. And that's not the most frustrating part, some aides said.
"This is a systemic plan by left-wing groups to tie up communication, disrupt our operations with protests, and then complain to the media that we're not responsive," said one Republican legislative aide who was not authorized to speak on the record.
But constituents also use those same phone lines to seek help applying for Medicaid, veterans benefits, passports and visas, the aide said.
"It harms real work," said another aide from a different Republican senator's office. "There are seniors who aren't getting their Social Security checks and there's immigration paperwork and visas that are not being processed."
And, he said, most of the time it's for naught.
"The senator takes feedback into consideration, but with Cabinet nominees, it's a done deal. The president is going to get his Cabinet members in place," said the aide.
At the Pittsburgh office of Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., frustrated constituents have established "Tuesdays with Toomey," a weekly protest at which they try to gain access. They also have flooded his email, his voicemail boxes and his social media accounts, then report the lack of response to media along with allegations that the senator has disconnected his phone lines.
"The office did not turn the phones off nor was staff instructed not to pick up the phone. Those charges are absurd," Toomey spokeswoman E.R. Anderson said. Call volume is down slightly from the first week in February but still much higher than usual, and aides are doing the best they can to keep up, she said.
Constituents' frustration was evident on the senator's Facebook page last Thursday after aides posted that his district offices would open late because of snow.
"It doesn't matter. No one answers your phones anyway," one Facebook user replied. "This weather event will likely last four years," posted another. "You don't listen to us when your offices are open, so what's the difference?" asked another on the Facebook page full of jabs and criticism.
Those who comment on Casey's Facebook page represent a mix of constituents _ from people grateful for his votes against Trump's Cabinet nominees to others incensed that he is standing by a health care plan they believe drove up the cost of insurance and hurt the economy.
The telephone calls are mixed, too. Casey hears from constituents offering praise for votes they agree with and furious ones who cannot be assuaged.
One constituent insisted that Casey hadn't been at work, hadn't shown up to a committee vote, and gets his health insurance for free. The caller was wrong on all counts but unpersuadable. A legislative aide took a message just the same.
"I'm happy to pass this along to the senator," he said, jotting notes that he would enter into a computer database where messages are sorted by topic, forwarded to subject-matter experts in the office, and summarized into weekly memos for the senator.
Most callers lately have been met with busy signals or diverted to voicemail boxes that are most often full.
It's frustrating. Just ask Frieden, the 27-year-old former Centre County resident who visited Casey's office after he couldn't get through by phone.
"I have friends and family at home that are having trouble reaching D.C., but I'm close enough that I can get here as their proxy," said Frieden, now a political consultant in Washington. He said it's important for constituents to make their voices heard, however they can.
While Frieden spoke with Rhoads, Walker was handling call after call, pausing occasionally to sip from a water bottle covered with pink hearts.
"Sen. Casey's office. How can I help you?" she said, repeating the greeting for the umpteenth time that afternoon.
"He's most certainly against her nomination. He feels she would be detrimental," she tells someone calling ahead of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' confirmation vote. "Which nominee are you calling about?" she asks the next caller. "I'll definitely pass that suggestion to the senator for you, OK?" she says to another.
Most callers are even-toned and want only to get their message across, but Walker, 23, who has been working for Casey for a year, doesn't mind even when they occasionally raise their voices in anger.
"When people have a stronger tone, I just think they're more passionate. I take it on its face that they have a strong opinion. They have a right to express it, and it's my job to convey it to the senator," she said.
Walker, Murphy and aides from other offices who answer phones have some advice for would-be callers: Keep the conversations short so others can get through, call later in the day when phones aren't as busy, stick to one topic per call, and use lawmakers' online communication forms on their Senate websites. They discourage using traditional mail, which has to be screened for anthrax and other biological hazards before it is delivered to congressional offices.
"You have the right to be heard, and all correspondence is considered whether you tweet at us, leave a voicemail or email us," Rhoads said. "The senator is more than open to hearing concerns of constituents."
