The previous section speaks of the importance of strong federal leadership in laying the groundwork for a healthy market in public private partnerships - an interesting twist, since up until then, references in the report to federal involvement in infrastructure have been narrowly defined to providing grant assistance to municipalities. This raises the question of what broader role - both financial and non-financial - the federal government should play in closing the country's infrastructure gap. And, with an election fast approaching and federal funds allocated to infrastructure in recent budgets fast running out, this exercise couldn't be any timelier.