WASHINGTON (AP) — Bankruptcy experts urged a Congressional subcommittee on Wednesday to examine whether changes to the bankruptcy law in 2005 led to the demise of Circuit City and other companies and the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs across many industries.

But most told the House Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee that the downfall of Richmond, Va.-based Circuit City Stores Inc. was inevitable, given the downturn in the economy and tightening credit from vendors and lenders alike.

“At the end of the day, this is a retail business, and the consumer votes every day with its dollar,” said Daniel B. Hurwitz, president and chief operating officer of Developers Diversified Realty Corp., which holds about 50 leases from Circuit City. “The American people are smart and they voted this company out of business a long, long time ago.”

Circuit City closed its 567 remaining U.S. stores Sunday and has laid off about 34,000 workers.

Circuit City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November as it faced heightened competition, pressure from vendors and waning consumer spending. It had hoped to emerge early this summer as a stronger and more competitive company, but the hobbled credit market and consumer spending cuts proved insurmountable.

During more than two hours of testimony, experts discussed amendments made in 2005 under the Bankruptcy Abuse and Consumer Protection Act.

Richard M. Pachulski, lead counsel to the Circuit City creditors’ committee, testified on his own behalf, blamed the company’s closure on the economy, strict terms under the company’s debtor-in-possession financing and payments that the company would have had to make to vendors in order to reorganize.

Under the law, companies are required to pay administrative claims in full before they can emerge from bankruptcy protection. Those claims include payments for goods received within 20 days before the company filed for bankruptcy court protection.

Claims in the Circuit City case amounted to about $350 million, Pachulski said, calling the law the company’s “death knell.”

Circuit City officials did not attend the hearing and did not submit written testimony.

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