The Scoop
Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy is teaming up with California Sen. Alex Padilla on a bill to organize wildfire response under a new National Wildland Firefighting Service within the Interior Department, according to details first shared with Semafor.
The bill would require the Agriculture and Interior secretaries to combine their wildfire operations under the new agency, with a specific budget and plans for a Senate-confirmable director.
Sheehy said the current bureaucratic organization under multiple departments had “failed” firefighters and led to towns being engulfed by wildfires: “The time is now to reshape our approach to American wildfire management and start fighting fires better, stronger, and faster.”
The GOP senator, who founded an aerial firefighting operation in Montana, is now on a half-dozen bipartisan fire-related bills — one of which, to improve wildfire forecasts, advanced through committee this week.