OpenAI has established an early lead in the race for influence on Capitol Hill, accounting for nearly 90% of identifiable artificial intelligence spending by the U.S. House of Representatives, making ChatGPT the default generative AI platform for lawmakers and congressional staff.
A CNBC analysis of House disbursement records shows OpenAI captured roughly nine out of every 10 dollars spent on named AI tools between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026. The spending records, while incomplete, offer one of the clearest public snapshots yet of how generative AI is being integrated into the daily operations of Congress.
The analysis identified at least $113,740 spent on identifiable AI vendors during the period. OpenAI accounted for $100,580 across 798 transactions, representing approximately 88% of total spending and 96% of all AI-related purchases. Rival Anthropic ranked a distant second, with Claude generating $13,160 from just 37 transactions.
The figures likely understate AI adoption across Congress because they exclude free chatbot accounts, AI capabilities bundled into broader software subscriptions such as Microsoft Copilot, reimbursements that do not identify the underlying software, and nearly all Senate usage. Even so, the data indicates that at least one-sixth of House offices have already purchased dedicated AI tools, suggesting that generative AI is rapidly becoming embedded in legislative work.
The spending race is strategically significant because the companies competing for congressional adoption are the same firms lobbying lawmakers and regulators over AI policy, procurement rules and future regulation.
Congressional offices are increasingly relying on AI to summarize legislation, prepare policy briefings, draft constituent correspondence, produce hearing materials, analyze bills and organize research, allowing staff to process growing workloads with limited resources.
Representative Julie Fedorchak, a Republican from North Dakota, said ChatGPT has transformed how her office prepares legislative materials.
“My staff used to spend hours writing memos to prepare me for the dozen-plus meetings I would have in a day,” Fedorchak said.
She said her office created a searchable database containing legislation, constituent submissions and policy materials that now enables ChatGPT to generate briefing documents automatically.
“It’s saving dozens and dozens of hours every week of staff time,” she said.
The productivity gains come as congressional offices face mounting pressure from growing volumes of information, a trend that AI itself is accelerating.
Marci Harris, chief executive of the POPVOX Foundation, said staff are confronting an unprecedented information overload.
“Staffers are famously overwhelmed, and actually AI is exacerbating that,” Harris said, noting that lobbyists, advocacy groups and constituents are themselves using AI to produce longer, more detailed and more frequent communications directed at Congress.
While OpenAI enjoys a commanding lead, Harris cautioned that Congress should avoid becoming dependent on a single platform as lawmakers prepare legislation governing the industry.
“It’s going to be their job to regulate it, so they need to be able to get their hands on all of them and understand the way that they work,” she said.
The political breakdown of AI spending reveals another notable trend. Democratic House offices accounted for $54,165 in identified AI purchases, more than three times the $15,782 spent by Republican offices.
ChatGPT subscriptions appeared in 44 Democratic offices and 27 Republican offices, while Anthropic’s Claude appeared in five Democratic offices and just one Republican office.
The figures are striking because many Democratic lawmakers have simultaneously raised concerns about AI’s potential impact on employment, privacy, elections, misinformation, civil rights and market concentration.
Congressional officials stress that AI is intended to assist staff rather than replace human judgment.
Representative James Walkinshaw, a Democrat from Virginia, said AI can streamline administrative work but should never make decisions affecting constituents.
“Our caseworkers in our district office can use AI to help organize casework requests, maybe expedite them, move things along faster,” Walkinshaw said.
“But when they’re making decisions related to a constituent’s case — are we going to advocate for our constituent with the Social Security Administration or with IRS? — that has to be a human decision, not an AI decision.”
OpenAI’s dominance appears to stem from its early entry into Congress.
In 2023, the House Digital Service launched an AI working group and distributed the first 40 ChatGPT Plus licenses to bipartisan congressional staff, giving OpenAI a significant first-mover advantage before competing products gained traction.
Marci Harris compared ChatGPT’s early brand recognition to household consumer products.
“OpenAI was the firm that they heard about,” she said.
“In the early days, ChatGPT was almost synonymous with AI — the way Kleenex is with tissues or Band-Aid is with bandages.”
The company also strengthened its presence through training initiatives. The Congressional Management Foundation partnered with OpenAI to provide ChatGPT training sessions for House and Senate staff, with OpenAI engineers participating directly in the programme. Some congressional offices have also received product training from OpenAI and Microsoft.
Meanwhile, AI companies are intensifying their lobbying efforts in Washington as Congress and federal agencies determine how the technology should be regulated.
According to Issue One, OpenAI spent $1 million on federal lobbying during the first quarter of 2026, an 82.5% increase from a year earlier. Anthropic spent nearly $1.6 million during the same period, more than tripling its lobbying expenditure year-on-year.
Interest in Anthropic also rose after a high-profile dispute with the U.S. Department of Defense earlier this year.
“After the whole Department of Defense-Anthropic blowup, we had people calling us saying, ‘I want to use Claude. Tell me about Claude,'” Harris said.
The concentration of congressional AI spending has also prompted governance questions.
Eric Petry of the Brennan Center for Justice said government institutions should ensure AI purchasing decisions remain driven by performance rather than politics.
“It may be the case that one product is better suited for the government applications, or maybe one product is better than the other,” Petry said.
“But if it’s based on partisan preferences, or there’s politics at play, then it becomes really concerning.”
He added that the same principle should apply whether the government is purchasing enterprise-scale AI systems or individual software subscriptions.
“We want to make sure that taxpayer dollars are being used to give the government the best tools available, and not to reward political favorites,” Petry said.
Although the available spending records represent only a partial picture of AI adoption across Congress, they illustrate OpenAI’s significant first-mover advantage at a time when lawmakers are shaping the regulatory framework that will govern the industry’s future. The data also suggests that ChatGPT has evolved beyond a productivity tool into core legislative infrastructure, positioning OpenAI with substantial influence as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in policymaking on Capitol Hill.
