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WASHINGTON - A high volume of phone calls to members of Congress in the opening days of President Donald Trump's administration has led some constituents to complain they can’t get through to their lawmakers and prompted an unusual Twitter skirmish between two Wisconsin lawmakers.

 

House Democrat Gwen Moore of Milwaukee said on Twitter Monday that she was getting “lots of constituent calls” about GOP Sen. Ron Johnson “turning off” his D.C. phones.

 

“This is a disturbing/ongoing trend,” Moore said in one of three tweets on the subject.

 

Johnson responded to Moore on Twitter that “our phones are certainly on & being answered.”

 

Then Johnson on Tuesday tweeted a picture of himself on the phone, saying, “Hey, Wisconsin. Our team is busy taking your calls and voice mails.”

 

Moore spokesman Eric Harris said Wednesday the Democratic congresswoman was just responding to an uptick in calls and contacts to her office from Wisconsinites outside of her district complaining they couldn’t get through to Johnson’s office either to make their views known or file a constituent request.

 

“We’re not trying to create political hay. We’re not trying to call him out. We’re saying to constituents we unfortunately can’t handle your casework if it’s outside (Moore’s) Fourth Congressional District," said Harris.

 

Johnson spokesman Ben Voelkel referred a reporter to the GOP senator’s response to Moore on Twitter, and said, “Our staff in Oshkosh, Milwaukee and Washington, D.C., is answering as many calls as possible and listens to every voice mail that callers leave to document their comments.”

 

Congressional staffers say high call volumes can fill up mailboxes at times. Some readers contacted the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to complain that their calls to some offices haven’t been picked up or voice mail was unavailable.

 

An aide to U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan of Madison, whose district is lopsidedly Democratic, said the call volume had increased with each week in January because of constituents complaining about Trump policies and that staff members who don’t normally man the phones were pitching in at times.

 

A spokesman for Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Menomonee Falls, whose district is lopsidedly Republican, said his office got a “slight uptick in calls” Monday after Trump’s executive order on refugees, but the volume was no greater than it was after President Barack Obama’s executive orders on gun regulations.

 

Because he is House speaker, Republican Paul Ryan’s office receives thousands of calls weekly instead of the hundreds that many other offices get. A Ryan spokesman said the volume of calls has been higher than average for the past several months, not simply since Trump took office.