Lebanon Valley College issued the following announcement on Sept. 28.
The Hon. Bryan Cutler, Esq., ’01 took a circuitous path to become the current Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, a road that showed resilience and tenacity. After graduating from Lancaster General Hospital’s Radiologic Technologist Program, where he was also employed, Cutler learned about LVC’s then-downtown satellite program in healthcare management. He earned his bachelor’s degree taking evening and Saturday classes while working second- and third-shift at the hospital. Cutler didn’t stop there.
“I had a lifelong dream of going to law school,” said Cutler. “Ironically, my undergraduate business law class was taught by Barbara Dillon, Esq., who worked at Nikolaus & Hohenadel, where I started practicing law after passing the bar. It rekindled my desire to go to law school and by 2002 I was studying for the LSATS and applying to law school. I ultimately chose Widener University due to their nationally ranked Health Law Program and my unique background from the clinical and business sides of healthcare.”
Cutler continued combining interests and knowledge through volunteering at the township level for the local planning commission.
“I became frustrated with Harrisburg. That was 2006, when the Legislature voted themselves a very large pay raise,” noted Cutler. “I started looking for someone to support in the election, but after a couple of people asked me why I wasn’t running, I decided to do so.
“I was raised that you never asked someone to do something that you wouldn’t be willing to do yourself. In this case it meant learning how to run a campaign during my third year in law school. I ran the contested primary against the incumbent during my final semester and won the primary on Tuesday and graduated that Saturday.”
Cutler handily won his subsequent elections and became Republican Majority Leader in 2018 and Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 2020. During his government tenure, he has supported and welcomed bi-partisan support of efforts to improve the lives of all residents of the Commonwealth.
“Solutions do not care about party affiliation,” noted Cutler. “Last session when I was Leader through June and then Speaker we ran approximately 650 bills in the House. Of those, 96% had bipartisan support, and 64% were passed with unanimous support, with nearly 175 becoming law. We have a strong history of working together in Harrisburg and I remain very proud of those efforts.
“In my Caucus leadership roles, I always try to visit numerous districts to understand people and their communities,” added Cutler. “When we understand each other, we understand how we make decisions. When we understand and respect each other we can solve problems.”
Cutler continues to advocate for issues that first evoked his interest in becoming an elected official in 2006.
“Many of my legislative and advocacy efforts have been focused on government transparency and, because of my experiences working in the industry, healthcare law.
“Government transparency is critical to democracy because people need to believe in the process for it to be successful. Healthcare law reform hits close to home, as both my parents had ALS, which is twice as likely to affect military veterans than the average population. Pennsylvania National Guards deployed the largest number of troops in the nation during the Global War on Terror. These brave soldiers, and all others who suffer from debilitating illness, need to know we have a support system in place for them.”
In closing, Rep. Cutler offered advice to current LVC students: “Always keep learning. Find issues and ideas that constantly challenge you and enrich you. Every summer I try to read at least one book on a topic I either think I disagree with or want to learn more about. Challenge your own assumptions and grow from that.”
Original source can be found here.
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