Montana elected a firefighter to the Senate. He’s already pushing for solutions
(CNN) — With wildfires fires ravaging Los Angeles, the firefighter-turned-senator from Montana wants to fight bureaucracy.
Less than a week into his new job, Montana Republican Tim Sheehy is finding plenty of use for his previous experience as an aerial firefighter and wildfire entrepreneur as he pushes for new legislation to address the new reality of a fire season that never ends.
Reset your view of wildfires
“There’s a huge dichotomy in America between structural firefighting — the red fire truck, traditional firemen everyone’s familiar with — and wildland firefighting,” Sheehy told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Thursday, adding that the country needs more money to fight wildfires and to cut past wildlife protections when flames are raging.
“The entire wildfire community has been speaking for years, shouting from the rooftops that this big one was going to be coming, and we’re not ready,” he said. That big one is now here in Los Angeles, he said.
Scientists and activists alarmed by the climate crisis have also been talking about the likelihood of a never-ending fire season, although Sheehy did not mention the climate. But the new reality of fire season is beyond dispute.
A year-round threat in need of a bipartisan solution
“There’s no fire season in California. It’s year-round,” Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday.
Sheehy echoed that sentiment when he told Collins, “It’s a year-round threat. It’s a 50-state threat.”
The fires are still raging in LA, but already Sheehy is working with Sens. Adam Schiff of California and Andy Kim of New Jersey, both Democrats whose states have suffered from wildfires, on new legislation.
“This can be a bipartisan solution,” Sheehy said, adding that he, Schiff and Kim don’t see eye to eye on a lot things, but on this, they can work together.
CNN reached out to Kim’s and Schiff’s offices to inquire about their priorities for a piece of wildfire preparedness legislation.
With his bona fides and the support of President-elect Donald Trump, Sheehy said there is speedy movement toward a new law.
“We’re going to try to start making these changes immediately, and punch through the bureaucracy. Because we have brave firefighters out there on the ground, and they need the right amount of support, and they’re not getting it,” Sheehy told Collins.
Where is the water?
He said there will need to be a focus on how states like California have approached water.
“You’ve been seeing a lot of criticism of the California government, and other entities in the government, not unfairly, about the restriction of water use,” Sheehy said.
Trump is among those who have criticized California’s government for its approach to water management, although, as CNN’s Daniel Dale noted, the president-elect’s arguments about the availability of water were not entirely rooted in reality.
Officials in Los Angeles have said it is the scale of multiple fires being fought simultaneously that sapped hydrants of pressure when it was needed most, but there will certainly be an accounting to determine why, exactly, the system ran dry.
What should a new law do?
As he tries to lead the way to a new law, Sheehy said it needs to include a readiness requirement to respond to a wildfire.
“It can take hours. It can take days, before an aircraft or a fire truck can respond to a wildland fire,” he said. “We have to reform that. That’s No. 1.”
His second priority would be to make the national wildfire apparatus a year-round operation.
“We treat these firefighters, who are brave first responders, we treat them like seasonal ski resort employees. They get underpaid, they don’t get benefits, they don’t get medical care, if they get injured on the job. … We do our best for our troops. Wildland firefighters don’t get any of that,” he said.
There have been efforts to increase funding for firefighters in recent years. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed by President Joe Biden in 2021 allocated billions of dollars to raise wages for firefighters. The Inflation Reduction Act passed by Democrats the following year also included funding to mitigate the risk of wildfires. The Los Angeles disaster could create momentum to do much more.
Firefighting with the private sector in the era of DOGE and spending cuts
Spending more money could be difficult at the outset of the Trump administration since Republicans are entering office with promises to cut government spending, not increase it.
In a December op-ed for Fox News, Sheehy argued that the government efficiency effort being led by businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy presents an opportunity to improve wildfire response by putting a focus on the private sector’s ability to respond to fires.
“The private sector always has and always will produce new innovations and better results faster and cheaper than the government. The same holds true in wildfire response. We must embrace this truth. Fostering stronger public-private partnerships with the wildland fire industry is essential,” Sheehy wrote.
A business built on fighting wildfires
It’s important to note here that some of Sheehy’s personal wealth comes in part from the aerial firefighting company he founded and used to lead, Bridger Aerospace, which relies on government contracts to help fight wildfires.
The young company has struggled financially and, during Sheehy’s Senate campaign, questions were raised about a $160 million public bond Gallatin County in Montana backed to help the private enterprise. Sheehy resigned as CEO in July during his Senate bid.
Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX have also relied on public backing to build wealth.
Sheehy told Collins that fires put millionaires and billionaires out on the street alongside the poor.
“They’re going to burn our houses the same way,” he said. “Let’s get ready.”
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