Overview
- CNBC’s analysis of House disbursement records for the year ending March 31, 2026 found ChatGPT accounted for $100,580 of at least $113,740 spent on named AI vendors, or about 88% of the dollars and 96% of transactions.
- House offices are using AI tools to summarize legislation, draft memos, prepare hearing materials and reply to constituents, and some members say those tools save staff hours and speed routine work.
- The public spending records give only a partial view because they exclude free accounts, AI bundled in larger contracts, reimbursements that do not name vendors and most Senate reporting, so actual congressional AI use is likely higher.
- Early access and training helped OpenAI secure a foothold: the House Digital Service issued initial ChatGPT Plus licenses in 2023 and nonpartisan training programs worked with OpenAI engineers, while OpenAI and Anthropic sharply increased federal lobbying spending in early 2026.
- Security and policy concerns are rising as agencies flagged risks with some models and lawmakers are advancing oversight ideas, including a bipartisan AI Kill Switch bill that would give officials authority to throttle or suspend powerful systems.