Barney Frank: “The answer here is definitely yes. I think a hold-harmless provision is appropriate. The purpose of the change, as the…”

“The answer here is definitely yes. I think a hold-harmless provision is appropriate. The purpose of the change, as the gentlewoman knows, in our mind was to prevent a kind of downward ratcheting in the overall usage. But consistent with that, we don't want to penalize particular authorities. We have already done some work, for instance, with the Dade County authority to take into account the fact that their shortfall came because of a hurricane, so they were not penalized by that. But the hold-harmless provision is a perfectly reasonable one, and I agree with the gentlewoman. I promise to work with the gentlewoman to do whatever we need to do legislatively to accomplish it.”