Out with congressional stock trading, in with charitable donations.
After facing scrutiny for being one of Congress’ most prolific stock traders, US Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Luzerne) has backed off the practice in 2026 according to NOTUS, and has pivoted to handing out charitable donations through his foundation, the Greenlight Project.
However, some of his constituents aren’t buying the shift.
“ I think he’s trying to make himself look better. He’s worried about his image,” Grace Robinson, a Monroe County resident, said in an interview.
Robinson, 31, has been fighting a genetic mitochondrial disorder for over a decade, and is worried about losing her Medicaid benefits once the cuts from President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” go into effect next year.
She also relies on the Supplementant Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to provide specialized medical food, which she temporarily lost access to during last year’s government shutdown.
“He’s voted against a lot of critical programs that his constituents rely on, and because of that, he has lost favor with a lot of people. Essentially, people aren’t thinking highly of that, and he is trying to get ahead of that, I believe,” Robinson said of Bresnahan.
READ: 20 billionaires and counting: US Rep. Rob Bresnahan’s ultra-wealthy donors revealed
Bresnahan has made over 600 stock trades with a value of $8.43 million since taking office last year, and sold Medicaid-related stocks while voting for Trump’s budget, which included $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and $187 billion cut to SNAP.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS), over 21,000 of Bresnahan’s constituents are expected to lose their Medicaid coverage, and another 11,000 will lose their SNAP benefits due to these cuts.
After voting for Trump’s cuts and pocketing money off of selling Medicaid-related stocks, Bresnahan and his wife launched the Greenlight Project in August 2025, setting aside $348,000 to help organizations with grants ranging between $1,000 and $6,000.
In its first round of funding, Bresnahan’s Greenlight Project announced more than $54,000 in grants for 16 community initiatives in the area.
Two of those grants went to the Bread Basket of NEPA and the Monroe County chapter of Meals On Wheels. Both organizations assist people who are suffering from food insecurity, many of whom rely on SNAP or other forms of assistance to put food on their tables.
Meals on Wheels in Monroe County received $3,500 from Bresnahan’s charity, but officials for the national organization warned last year that they do not have the resources to cover the increase in demand if the SNAP cuts were implemented.
“Congressman Bresnahan is donating his entire salary to give back to the community who raised him. He fought last fall to keep WIC and SNAP funded during the Democrats’ shutdown, which Paige Cognetti cheered on after cutting paid maternity leave for Scranton employees,” Samantha Bullock, a spokesperson for Bresanahan’s campaign, said in a statement.
Maria Santomauro, the executive director of Bread Basket of NEPA, is grateful for the $1,500 grant from Bresnahan’s foundation, which will help maintain a partnership with DoorDash to deliver food to those who need it.
However, she noted that demand at the Bread Basket of NEPA, which operated seven pantries in Lackawanna County, has been increasing steadily over the past year.
“ We’ve been noticing a steady increase in the need for many months, and our numbers seem to go up, up, up,” Santomauro said in an interview.
“What we’ve noticed too is it’s not necessarily who we think, aside from SNAP benefits, the people that we serve. Lackawanna County alone has over 30,000 people who face food insecurity on a regular basis, and 6,000 thousand of those are children.”
Scranton resident Krysten Xanthis is one of those 30,000. She is now struggling to get by after losing her SNAP benefits because of the Big Beautiful Bill. Xanthis used to receive $130 per month in food aid, but lost her benefits because she’s living with her mom, who is also a SNAP recipient.
“ It’s very hard to live when you’re just getting back to work, you’re only making $13 an hour, when you only work four days a week,” Xanthis, who is also likely to lose her Medicaid coverage due to the law, said in an interview.
Xanthis went on to explain how she would react if she came across lawmakers who supported the cuts to SNAP.
“If I ever in my life had a chance of seeing somebody that did what they did to these cuts, one of the people, even if it’s not the person that represents my area, I would probably lose it on them at this point, like start screaming because they do not understand how it is,” she added.
