January 31, 2017
Amid a chaotic start to President Donald Trump's term, many constituents have been contacting their elected officials to voice their concerns — including by some a rather outdated method.
The website Fax Zero, which lets users send faxes for free, has been keeping track of which U.S. senators and representatives have been receiving the most faxes. According to the website's numbers as of Tuesday morning, Pennsylvania's Republican U.S. senator, Pat Toomey, was in the lead, and it wasn't even close.
Toomey had received a whopping 927 faxes in the last 24 hours, nearly 300 more than the second closest lawmaker, Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California. Feinstein has come under scrutiny for supporting some of Trump's Cabinet appointees.
Toomey's lead was similarly large Monday, when BillyPenn pointed out on Twitter that the senator's office was getting way more faxes than any other lawmaker. Coming in seventh on the list, as of Tuesday morning, was Pennsylvania's other U.S. senator, Democrat Bob Casey, with 149 faxes.
After defeating Democratic challenger Katie McGinty in the November general election, Toomey has been under intense pressure from some constituents regarding his positions on the Trump administration and its policies.
A group of constituents has formed a regular "Tuesdays with Toomey" group that protests outside his Philadelphia office on a weekly basis. The group has taken issue with a number of Toomey's stances, such as supporting the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
Recently, Toomey spoke out on Trump's travel ban on refugees coming from seven Muslim-majority countries, an executive order that includes a provision allowing federal officials to eventually give priority to refugees of minority religions from those countries.
While he was critical of its implementation, Toomey voiced support for increased vetting of immigrants and the temporary suspension of "certain individuals" from some nations entering the country.
