mr. maffei, working together on something that may bring relief to some people. and i want thank you for the hearing. >> thank you, mr. ellison. now it is up to the panel and we want that the panel for appearing before the subcommittee today. without objection, your written statements will be entered into the record for you will be recognized for a five-minute summary of your statements. please contain yourself to 5 minutes. all like to recognize this jeannene langford, an investor in the mot family investors. and in direct investor in mr. madoff's fund. >> chairman kanjorski, ranking member, members of the committee, thank you for holding these hearings and looking into the sec's complicit 8 with bernard madoff investments. my name is jeannene langford and i live in san rafael, california as one of the more than 16,000 victims of the madoff ponzi scheme. i am grateful to have the opportunity to present how financially devastating the scandal was to me personally. it shattered my trust in my government's ability to serve and to protect us. i hope is that congress

mr. maffei, as well as mr. ellison of minnesota, mr. klein of florida, and mr. perlmutter of colorado who have helped to select today's witnesses and advance discussions on reforming the securities investor protection act. together, i hope that we can learn more from these terrible events and figure out how we can further improve our regulatory system. now what would like to recognize the ranking member for his opening statement. >> and i thank the chairman and all of the witnesses for joining us today to testify before our subcommittee. from people situated similar to yourself, i have been all aware of the suffering inflicted on so many investors, and in my area, that the district of new jersey and across the country as well, due to the madoff situation and the stanford situation as well. it is important that we hold this hearing today to hear first hand from some of the victims. not only to get a better render standing of their situation and their plight, but also to hear your ideas. having been to this experience personally. how to make this process work bett

mr. maffei, as well as mr. ellison of minnesota, mr. klein of florida, and mr. perlmutter of colorado who have helped to select today's witnesses and advance discussions on reforming the securities investor protection act. together, i hope that we can learn more from these terrible events and figure out how we can further improve our regulatory system. now what would like to recognize the ranking member for his opening statement. >> and i thank the chairman and all of the witnesses for joining us today to testify before our subcommittee. from people situated similar to yourself, i have been all aware of the suffering inflicted on so many investors, and in my area, that the district of new jersey and across the country as well, due to the madoff situation and the stanford situation as well. it is important that we hold this hearing today to hear first hand from some of the victims. not only to get a better render standing of their situation and their plight, but also to hear your ideas. having been to this experience personally. how to make this process work bett

mr. maffei, as well as mr. ellison of minnesota, mr. klein of florida, and mr. perlmutter of colorado who have helped to select today's witnesses and advance discussions on reforming the securities investor protection act. together, i hope that we can learn more from these terrible events and figure out how we can further improve our regulatory system. now what would like to recognize the ranking member for his opening statement. >> and i thank the chairman and all of the witnesses for joining us today to testify before our subcommittee. from people situated similar to yourself, i have been all aware of the suffering inflicted on so many investors, and in my area, that the district of new jersey and across the country as well, due to the madoff situation and the stanford situation as well. it is important that we hold this hearing today to hear first hand from some of the victims. not only to get a better render standing of their situation and their plight, but also to hear your ideas. having been to this experience personally. how to make this process work bett

mr. maffei of new york and catoville of maryland launch -- kratovil of maryland, launched a legislative effort. but one of the pieces of legislation to leave town were the appropriations bills. we drafted some language and put it in mr. serrano's bill and mr. obey took it. mr. serrano and mr. obey took t they didn't have to. they probably got in trouble for taking it. that became the 800-pound gorilla that had to be dealt with as general motors and chrysler moved forward on how to deal with this dealer situation. i also want to say something nice about the majority leader, mr. hoyer. he took up the mantel and said we are going to solve this problem. as a result the five pages that are here in the bill indicate that those aggrieved dealers now have the opportunity to binding arbitration and the facts need to be brought forward and hopefully fairness will be -- prevail, but that wouldn't happen without something good and bipartisan happening in the united states congress. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. who seeks recognition at this time? the gentleman fr