; (2) new, innovative financial and procurement mechanisms under development or used experimentally that may be available, in the near term, to public and private entities to fund smart city or community activities and associated demonstration projects; (3) barriers to creative financing solutions for those activities and projects, including procurement barriers faced by State and local governments; and (4) ways to leverage private sector investments in smart cities and communities. III Improving performance and interoperability 301. Standards and interoperability framework (a) Participation To strengthen the public-private partnership approach to smart city- or community-related standards development and interoperability, the Secretary, acting through the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, shall strongly encourage and support participation by Federal Government experts in private sector-led standards-related activities that convene smart city or community stakeholders, including representatives of applicable Federal agencies. (b) Activities To promote innovation and economic competitiveness and to achieve interoperability of smart city or community devices and systems, while strengthening the United States approach to private sector-led standardization activities and the participation of Federal representatives under subsection (a), the Secretary, in consultation with private and public sector stakeholders, shall— (1) survey and review domestic and international smart city or community performance standards, existing architectures, applications, and deployments, and interoperability standards; (2) make consensus-based recommendations— (A) to identify gaps in the smart city or community performance standards and interoperability standards under paragraph (1); (B) to harmonize existing standards and deployment efforts and enable greater interoperability across smart city or community technologies