‘Our North Star is always Northeastern Pennsylvania’: A Q&A with U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan

With his first term in the House of Representatives now behind him, U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan is locked in a competitive race in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District against his Democratic challenger, Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti – a contest that will determine who represents the Northeastern Pennsylvania district for the next two years and could very well decide which party controls Congress. 

Ahead of Election Day, Bresnahan spoke with City & State about his first term in Congress, the state of the race and what his priorities will be if NEPA voters elect him to a second term. 

The following conversation has been edited and condensed for length and clarity. 

When you look at your first two years in office, what are you most proud of? 

I never thought in a million years that a kid from Wyoming, Pennsylvania would be serving in the United States House of Representatives. Northeastern Pennsylvania is my home. My family has called this home for five generations, and I love getting to serve on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. I love getting to serve on the Small Business Committee, and I really, truly love that I’m in a competitive district because it makes our decisions, and what we do as a team, that much more deep. In every single decision, every single vote that we take, our North Star is always Northeastern Pennsylvania.

I’ve delivered. I’ve broken with my party when it was right for our district, and I’m really proud of the fact that we’ve been able to bring back over $110 million back to Northeastern Pennsylvania for critical infrastructure projects. Tobyhanna Army Depot – we were able to secure $68 million for their radar dome investments. Everyone in Northeastern Pennsylvania at one point or another had a family member, a cousin, an uncle that somehow is affiliated to Tobyhanna Army Depot. It’s the largest employer in our district, and one of the first things I heard within my first month there were some concerns about the viability and the future of Tobyhanna Army Depot and the possible reduction in force. By delivering those dollars, we know that Tobyhanna is going to be here to stay for the future generations. 

I love also getting to solve issues back on the ground. Tomorrow, we’ll be meeting with the Army Corps of Engineers to discuss levees and flood protection. This was slightly before my time, but in 1972, Northeastern Pennsylvania was decimated by the Hurricane Agnes flood. Northeastern Pennsylvania is always in the epicenter of traumatic weather events, and finding a coherent way to invest in our levee protection throughout the area is critical. 

Being able to advocate for constituents – our casework team is top notch. I’d put our office up against any office in the country, being able to deliver on those frustrations that many of our residents have dealing with the federal government. We have a Veterans Affairs hospital inside of our district, and when you’re able to recover a Bronze Star for a World War II veteran’s son after his house was burglarized and replace it – that’s the stuff that really motivates you and pushes you to do that much better. 

This is the only home I’ve ever known. I’ve always been within nine miles of the Nesbitt Hospital, where I was born. So having an opportunity to represent Northeastern Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives and advocating for my home is truly what I’m the most proud of. 

What are you hearing from voters about their concerns this election cycle? Is there anything that’s really standing out to you? 

We are at over 50,000 doors that we have knocked on. What we hear about is the cost of living, the kitchen table issues. We also hear about crumbling infrastructure. It depends on what part of the district that you’re in, because there are some really critical arteries that have been left in disrepair for years. The Nanticoke Bridge, which moves 14,000 cars a day – you hear about the frustrations from first responders that need to take an extra five to seven minutes to respond to emergencies on the other side of the river because of a bridge that has been deemed structurally deficient. We also hear about the cost of healthcare. We hear about the cost of utilities. We hear about the cost of fuel. When you have a chance to talk with people, more often than not, you can come to an understanding that you’ve got to row the boat in the same direction. 

Something that we heard a lot about in our last campaign was illegal immigration. We’ve also heard about jobs and economic opportunities for the next generation. We have incredible colleges and universities in Northeastern Pennsylvania – but I hear a lot from people who get frustrated that their children, after getting an incredible college or university diploma, have to leave Northeastern Pennsylvania in order to find employment opportunities, whether that’s in accounting or they have to go out of the area for a law school. Something that we were able to secure was $3 million in seed funding for a career and technical school in Wayne and Pike County – two of the only counties out of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties that don’t have dedicated career technical education. We were able to partner with the USDA on low-interest loans and bring another $37 million so they can start to put together the architectural renderings to create a dedicated CTC for Wayne and Pike counties. We were a part of the announcement for Misericordia University, which is now opening a law school. If you wanted to become a lawyer, you had to leave Northeastern Pennsylvania – you’d go to either Harrisburg or to Philadelphia in order to do that. So we’ve worked on everything from creating the next generation of plumbers all the way to the next generation of lawyers. People want jobs, they want economic opportunity … So we are always looking at opportunities and partnerships to attract people to relocate, create their families, create their livelihoods here in the district. 

Your opponent has criticized you over the issue of stock trading while in office. What would you say to people who have concerns about members of Congress trading stocks?

I was a contractor before coming to Congress. My family business handles traffic signals, highway lighting and highway siting. I was never in the state legislature. I never ran for County Council. I never ran for state treasurer. Everything I did was for Northeastern Pennsylvania. The most important takeaway is that I don’t manage my own stocks. I would say that it’s throwing rocks at a glass house because Paige Cognetti worked for Goldman Sachs as a private wealth manager. She knows that I am not directing my advisers to buy this or sell that. Insider trading is a federal crime. I never broke the law. I never broke the Stock Act. Every single trade was reported, and if the blind trust parameters established by the House Ethics Committee weren’t archaic, (our stocks would be in) a qualified blind trust. 

I understand that some members of Congress admit they instruct their financial advisers or trade their own holdings using information they get from serving on sensitive committees – and that’s absolutely wrong. That’s why I voted for the stock trading ban for members of Congress, which is the most comprehensive stock trading ban in the history of Congress. We even drafted our own piece of legislation – the TRUST Act – to prevent members of Congress from trading on sensitive information. I know that’s been one of the focal points of her campaign. 

What I want the readers to know is: I don’t trade, I don’t advise, I don’t tell my advisers what to buy, what to sell. I came from the private sector, where I’ve been contributing to a 401(k) plan since I was an employee under my grandmother and grandfather. It’s the same strategy that’s actively managed by our wealth advisers – and Paige knows, doing this job, that she would actually be someone who would be hired to manage these individual discretionary accounts. 

If voters choose to send you back to Congress for another two years, what’s at the top of your priority list?

I certainly want to continue to deliver good investments, prudent taxpayer investments, back into Northeastern Pennsylvania. We have extremely old and aging infrastructure, and as we’ve continued to see Northeastern Pennsylvania grow in the capacity that it has, Pike County is actually one of the fastest-growing counties in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Delivering tangible dollars that deliver the maximum amount of good back to the district is certainly going to be a priority.

I’m also very focused on finding a way to address the cost of health insurance. We voted for (Pharmacy Benefit Manager) reform. We have a bill, hopefully, that will move during the lame duck session – when we get back – on capping insulin costs. Taking on the pharmaceutical companies: We’re dealing with a situation here in Northeastern Pennsylvania where United Healthcare just put over 50,000 people in the district out of the network. Opening up competition to other health insurance companies to be able to actually provide coverage for us here in Northeastern PA … That’s something that we’re going to have to work on with the state legislature and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, so other companies can come in and ultimately make health insurance cost less. 

I discharged three different (Affordable Care Act) enhancement tax credit pieces of legislation, and ultimately discharged and voted for the three-year extension – because when the ACA (enhanced premium tax credits) were made to be temporary back in 2022, long before I was in Congress, Congress still didn’t come up with a viable solution for that. What I learned and heard from people here in the district was that it was small businesses – landscapers, independent businesses – that were actually purchasing their health insurance through the exchange. So that isn’t fair to them. It’s why I broke with my party on those issues. 

What is your closing pitch to 8th Congressional District voters as Election Day nears? 

I was born in Northeastern Pennsylvania. I was raised here. I created jobs in Northeastern Pennsylvania. I reinvested in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Everything we do is with Northeastern Pennsylvania’s best interest in mind, so much so that I donate my entire congressional salary through a fund at the Luzerne Foundation to give back to the home that has given us everything. My wife and I met in Northeastern Pennsylvania. We plan on dying and getting buried here. At the end of the day, what we care about is this district, and I will fight tooth and nail to make sure that we get what we deserve.