WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive orders and Elon Musk’s push to feed federal agencies “into the wood chipper” are reshaping Washington — and according to staff, are burying congressional offices under a mountain of calls and casework.

Angry constituents are peppering lawmakers with questions at town halls. Phone lines are blowing up. Immigration casework is mounting amid crackdowns. Federal workers are asking for help after getting laid off en masse, while others fear for their jobs. Recipients of government services worry programs like Medicaid, Social Security or food stamps could be targeted. And local leaders and nonprofits are worried about losing critical funding.

“Come January, everything really changed,” said Emma Dawson, a grants coordinator who works in the district office of a House Democrat. “I’m taking calls all day. ... A lot of people I’ve talked to are scared and confused.”

“The mood is overwhelmed and underwater,” said Anne Meeker, deputy director at the nonprofit POPVOX Foundation and a former caseworker.

When federal agencies are in upheaval, it can have a knock-on effect. “Constituents still need that information, so they call anyone they can. And that’s really where we see these big spikes for Congress,” said Meeker, whose work at POPVOX includes developing resources to support Hill staffers on the front lines of constituent services.

Even as some argue that lawmakers are not doing enough to head off a constitutional crisis as Trump seeks more power for himself, their aides have been kept exceptionally busy responding to the public.

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski asked for patience earlier this month as a flood of calls overwhelmed phone systems. According to Murkowski, the Senate was receiving 1,600 calls a minute, up from an average of 40.

“We know the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms had to significantly increase the capacity of the system in response, and that progress has been made in addressing the very high volumes of calls,” said a Democratic Senate aide with knowledge of the situation. The Senate Sergeant-at-Arms did not respond to a request for comment.

According to Meeker, calls coming into congressional offices can be placed into two categories: people voicing their opinions, and constituents requesting help after being affected by a move from the Trump administration. The volume may vary by district and party.

Murkowski, for instance, is a moderate Republican who was seen as a potential swing vote on some of Trump’s more controversial Cabinet nominees (last week, she voted against Kash Patel, who will now lead the FBI) and was the target of pressure campaigns from both sides.

Offices that tend to handle more immigration casework and members from districts with large numbers of federal workers may be experiencing steeper upticks too, according to Meeker. Virginia Democratic Rep. Donald S. Beyer Jr., for one, set up a page for federal workers, contractors or people who receive federal grants to submit their stories.

‘We don’t know what’s going on’

The past month has come at a breakneck pace, said some staffers who deal directly with constituents. Working as a caseworker in Congress often means acting as a go-between, helping people solve a problem or get what they need from federal agencies, from veterans benefits to passports to disaster recovery.

As Musk and the new Department of Government Efficiency continue to target the federal bureaucracy with a metaphorical chainsaw, they have little hope that things will return to normal anytime soon.

“I have never, ever seen anything like this,” said one caseworker for a Senate Democrat, who requested anonymity because she is not authorized to speak to the press.

The caseworker said she’d worked through other crises, like the COVID-19 pandemic and the Afghanistan withdrawal, that led to a deluge of difficult casework. But never has she felt so unable to help people on the other end of the line.

“There’s new information that comes out every day, there’s confusing information that comes out every day,” she said. “And there are so many people that are coming to our offices looking for help and guidance, and we don’t have that to give because we don’t know what’s going on.”

It’s not all doom and gloom, though, at least according to Ashley Newell, who until January was a caseworker for Indiana Republican Rep. Larry Bucshon. Newell, who no longer works in Congress but remains in touch with others who do, said a longstanding frustration among caseworkers is slow response time from federal agencies.

Calls, even placed from congressional offices, aren’t always answered. And certain executive branch agencies are known for being particularly difficult to reach.

“There is a feeling of hope that some of those agencies will now be forced to be more responsive,” Newell said. “And there’s less fear on the more responsive agencies that they’ll be completely done away with. But they might be leaned up a little bit now.”

For Newell, Musk’s stated goal of making the government more efficient has the potential to help streamline a process that has had its snags, though she acknowledged there would be some immediate shocks to the work, like grants getting frozen and workers laid off.

“I am very optimistic that this could be better. But I also recognize that they have 17 months to make it better,” Newell said, adding that the clock is ticking before the height of midterm election season. “If they do not get it done in 17 months or less, it’s going to be an even bigger quagmire.”

In the meantime, staffers are scrambling to respond to all the calls with whatever information they can gather. Some feel new impediments pop up daily or weekly.

The Senate Democratic caseworker, for one, said constituent service representatives in the executive branch — who act as liaisons and handle incoming casework inquiries from Congress — had been removed or fired in the last month.

She learned recently that one of her federal agency contacts was fired, less than a day after she’d last made contact for assistance on a case. A new liaison was assigned, but relationships will need to rebuilt and service could suffer, she said.

“I have somebody that I’ve had an established relationship with for years and could go to for that one-on-one, direct assistance that is sometimes needed … And he’s just gone,” she said. “How many other congressional liaisons are gone?”

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