国会山工作人员在跛脚鸭会议开幕仅数日后，周四因微软大规模故障而难以开展业务，多名工作人员向《政客》网站表达了对持续状况的沮丧。
Congressional staffers were left struggling to conduct business only days into the lame-duck session amid widespread Microsoft outages on Thursday, with staffers expressing frustration to POLITICO over the ongoing situation.
此次全球性故障波及微软365套件，其中包括华盛顿联邦办公室广泛使用的Outlook电子邮件账户。微软周四在X平台发帖称，由于“多台服务器意外不可用”，任何地区的用户“可能都受到了影响”。该公司随后表示，正在“开启所有可用途径以恢复服务，因为迄今采取的措施未能提供预期的缓解”。但随着微软努力快速诊断问题并恢复服务，几名国会山工作人员——均获准匿名以便自由讨论情况——告诉《政客》网站，部分国会工作被迫暂停。
The global outage impacted the Microsoft 365 suite, which includes Outlook email accounts, used widely in Washington federal offices. Microsoft posted on X Thursday that users “in any region” may have been affected by the outage, which was due to “a number of servers being unexpectedly unavailable.”The company later wrote it was “opening all available pathways to restore service, as our actions taken thus far have not provided the anticipated relief.”But as Microsoft worked to quickly diagnose the problem and restore services, some congressional work was put on hold, several Hill staffers — all granted anonymity to discuss the situation freely — told POLITICO.
“我们都在用Outlook，那是我们的命脉，所有东西都在里面，我们的日程、老板的日程都在里面，所以这很有挑战性……无法访问我们的‘圣经’，”一名众议院工作人员说。“一天的立法工作就这样泡汤了。”
“We all use Outlook, that’s our life, everything is there, our calendar is there, our boss’s calendar, so it has been a challenge … with no access to our Bible,” one House staffer said. “There goes a day of legislative work.”
德丽诺·埃莉诺·霍姆斯·诺顿众议员（民主党-哥伦比亚特区）的通讯主任莎伦·伊莱扎·尼科尔斯周四在X平台发帖称，她对故障感到“沮丧”，并询问“我们是否该开始通过私信开展所有公务？”负责监管众议院IT事务的首席行政官办公室发言人萨曼莎·卡特周四向《政客》网站确认，众议院办公室受到了微软故障影响，并表示首席行政官办公室发出了“全园区警报”通知众议院工作人员。
Sharon Eliza Nichols, director of communications for Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), said on X Thursday that she was “frustrated” by the outage, and asked “shall we start conducting all official business via DM?”
由于故障原因，《政客》网站无法立即联系到负责参议院IT事务的参议院军械官办公室。
Samantha Carter, spokesperson for the Chief Administrative Officer that oversees IT for the House, confirmed to POLITICO on Thursday that House offices were impacted by the Microsoft outage, and said the CAO sent out a “campus-wide alert” to inform House staffers.
多名国会山工作人员表示，故障完全打乱了他们的工作日程，而事发之际正值跛脚鸭国会会议期间，议员们正试图就最终政策协议进行谈判，这是一个特别活跃的时期。
POLITICO was not immediately able to contact the Senate Sergeant at Arms office, which oversees IT concerns in that chamber, due to the outage.
“我使用 Outlook，这造成了极大的干扰，”第二位众议院助理说。“我们正处于年底待定立法谈判和下届国会筹备的关键时期。Teams 只能起到有限作用。这真的让人很沮丧。” 这次故障凸显了国会山办公室有必要在微软生态系统之外建立备用通信系统。
Several Hill staffers found their days completely derailed by the outage, which occurred during a particularly active period as lawmakers try to negotiate final policy deals during the lame-duck congressional session. “I use Outlook and it’s been incredibly disruptive,” a second House staffer said. “We’re in the middle of end-of-year negotiations on pending legislation and planning for next Congress. Teams only goes so far. It’s really frustrating.”
“还有一些东西会通过邮件发送——邀请函、党鞭通知等——你可以在其他地方找到，但人们习惯通过电子邮件获取，”一位民主党办公室主任告诉《政治报》（POLITICO）。
The outage highlighted the need for Capitol Hill offices to have fallback communication systems in place outside of“There are also things that get sent around — invites, whip notices, etc — that you can find other places but people are used to getting by email,” one Democratic chief of staff told POLITICO.
“我们正通过其他通信方式继续工作——只是很麻烦，”第三位国会山助理说。
“We are continuing our work through other means of communication — it’s just a pain,” a third Hill staffer said.
这次故障也并非全无好处。第四位众议院助理告诉《政治报》，虽然他们“无法开展任何工作”，但他们注意到“公园和星巴克都挤满了人”。
The outage wasn’t all bad. A fourth House staffer told POLITICO that while they “can’t do any work,” they noted that “the park and the Starbucks are both packed.”