Lawmakers' AI-Written Bills Arrive Riddled With Fake Citations and Legal Mistakes

Congressional staff using AI tools like ChatGPT to draft laws are sending in bills with made-up legal citations, wrong terms, and structural problems. Lawyers who review legislation now spend more time fixing these drafts than writing their own, Politico reported in August 2026. One repeated mistake leaves out Washington, DC and Native American tribal nations by defining "state" as only the 50 states.