Mayor Bloomberg Backs Incentive Auctions

In a letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) has come out in support of the public safety/broadcaster incentive auctions bill that passed out of the committee this week.

The bill would both create an interoperable broadband public safety network and fund that by authorizing the FCC to compensate broadcasters for moving off the spectrum. Mayor Bloomberg is squarely on the side of allocating the D block for that public safety network, rather than auctioning for a public private public safety partnership, as several Republicans have backed. Those Republicans do not include Rep. Peter King of New York, however, who backs allocation.