mr. brian cartwright is a score lar-in-resident at the marshal school of business, and former general counsel of the securities and exchange commission. thank you for being here. mr. alon hillel-tuch is the co-funder and ceo of rockethub. it's a fantastic crowd funding site. doing exciting things and mr. c. stephen bradford is a law professor at university of nebraska. mr. john coffee jr. is a fro professor at columbia law school. please raise your right hand. do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? all right. thanks. you may be seated. let the record reflect that the witnesses answered in the affirmati affirmative. we have the lights set up for you. they're very simple. red means stop. yellow means hurry up and finish. green means go. we'll give you five minutes to summarize your opening statements. your opening statements, your written statements will be in as part of the record. we'll begin. mr. cartwright, you're recognized for five minutes. >> chairman mchenry, members of the subcommittee. you've honored

mr. brian cartwright, you're recognized for five minutes. >> chairman mchenry, ranking member and membersf the subcommittee, you have honored me with your invitation to appear before you today, and i think you for having me. you have my written testimony, and i won't try to rehearse that testimony again here in these introductory remarks. instead, i want to phrase the questions to follow by offering perspective on why the jobs act was passed with the support of the administration by overwhelming votes in both houses of congress and what i think we are here today. the j.o.b.s. act was passed because there is a bipartisan understanding that something has gone quite wrong in the world of american public companies, particularly the newer, up-and-coming companies. after all, the number of public companies, exchange listed companies come has declined dramatically. in the roughest of numbers, we have gone from somewhere around 8000 exchange listed companies to something in the vicinity of 5000. that is a dramatic drop. it has happened because none of companies are signing up to go public to repl

mr. brian cartwright is a scholar -- the scholar resident marsha school of business, university of southernalifornia university of southern california, senior adviser at the atomic level partners and former general counsel of securities and exchange commission. thank you for being here. mr. alon hillel-tuch -- i say that correctly, sir -- the cofounder and chief financial officer bob rockethub inc. and for those of you who are not familiar, it is a fantastic crowdfunding site doing fantastic things. .. >> you have my written testimony. and will not try to rehearse that year with the brief introductory remarks. instead of 12 frame my discussion to offer my perspective why a the j.o.b.s. act that passed with overwhelming votes in both houses of congress. that j.o.b.s. act past widespread bipartisan understanding something has gone wrong with companies with the new and up and coming companies. exchange listed companies has declined to radically. we have gone from 8,000 exchange-listed down at 5,000. that is a dramatic drop because not be enough signup to go public to replace those. ipo is down