Republican congressman Rob Bresnahan is campaigning on a bill to give Pennsylvania communities greater control over data centre developments while holding investments in companies that stand to benefit from the industry’s expansion.
The issue is central to a new television advert running in the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre area, where Bresnahan is seeking re-election. In the advert, he presents himself as a defender of local decision-making against large technology companies seeking to build facilities in north-eastern Pennsylvania.
“Northeastern Pennsylvania is our land and our home, but to big data, we’re just land and dollar signs,” Bresnahan says in the advert. He adds that his legislation would require local approval before construction and protect communities from corporations seeking to challenge their decisions.
Bresnahan introduced the Local Control Protection Act in June. The bill would limit developers’ ability to sue municipalities in federal court after a data centre application had been rejected, provided the decision was based on documented concerns including infrastructure, water, public health or the character of the community.
It would also require developers seeking federal incentives to demonstrate a tangible local benefit, including investment in roads and utilities, environmental and noise monitoring, and plans to recruit and train workers from the surrounding area.
The measure has not advanced and has yet to attract a co-sponsor, according to congressional reporting. Its launch came as opposition to large-scale facilities intensified across Pennsylvania, where residents have raised concerns about electricity demand, water use, environmental effects and the impact on household bills.
However, Bresnahan’s financial disclosure shows that he continues to own assets linked directly or indirectly to the data centre sector. The filing records between roughly $19,000 and $110,000 in shares of Equinix, Digital Realty Trust, Iron Mountain and SBA Communications, companies with data centre operations or related infrastructure.
He also reports between about $804,000 and $2.04 million invested in firms supplying semiconductors, networking equipment, manufacturing tools and software used by artificial intelligence and data centre businesses. The holdings include Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, Micron Technology, Arista Networks, Applied Materials, Lam Research, Cisco Systems, Broadcom and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
A further portfolio category, worth between approximately $777,000 and $1.78 million, consists of major technology companies with substantial data centre requirements or investments. Those holdings include Amazon, Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Oracle.
Bresnahan’s campaign did not answer detailed questions about his investments. His spokesperson, Samantha Bullock, said support for local control did not amount to opposition to investment and argued that lawmakers should consider both community concerns and the blue-collar jobs and economic development that facilities could bring to the region.
Bresnahan has repeatedly said that financial advisers manage his portfolio and that he has no involvement in individual trades. He previously backed a ban on congressional stock trading and introduced legislation on the issue after taking office, but that proposal has also stalled.
Last year, his public position on data centres was more welcoming. In April 2025, he said he was pleased that companies were considering north-eastern Pennsylvania and described the facilities as potential catalysts for economic growth and technological innovation.
His Democratic challenger, Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, has also made data centre regulation a central theme of her campaign. Her financial disclosure shows no individual shareholdings, although she has investments through retirement accounts, mutual funds and index funds.
Pennsylvania tightens data centre rules
The political dispute comes as the number of proposed projects in the state grows. Pennsylvania officials said in August that more than 100 data centre proposals had appeared in publicly sourced databases, with 58 projects having engaged with the Department of Environmental Protection and 15 having applied for at least one permit.
Governor Josh Shapiro has since signed an executive order requiring new projects seeking state permits to obtain local approval and comply with standards covering energy costs, environmental protection, workforce development, transparency and community engagement.
The order also removes artificial intelligence data centre projects from Pennsylvania’s fast-track permitting programme and prohibits the use of non-disclosure agreements for such developments. It gives municipalities a greater say, but stops short of the federal protections sought in Bresnahan’s bill.
Bresnahan has previously described data centres as a possible source of investment and jobs. His campaign now argues that communities should have the final word on whether those projects are built, even as his disclosed portfolio remains invested across much of the industry’s supply chain.
