AXIOS: Freshman wishlist: Tim Sheehy to fight fires from the Senate

Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) is fresh off his victory over one of the last red-state Democrats and has his next target: fixing how the federal government fights wildfires.

Why it matters: Sheehy, who has worked fighting wildfires, told Axios that he is focused on passing reforms to the system as his first move in the Senate — as fires ravage Los Angeles County.

• “Our ability to respond to wildfires — which was my job, I’m a water bomber pilot — is fundamentally broken,” Sheehy said, saying it is one of several problems caused by “bureaucracy run amok.”
• The senator said he sees fellow freshman Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) as a potential bipartisan partner on the issue. Freshman Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) is another.

Zoom in: As a former Navy SEAL, Sheehy has landed seats on the Armed Services and Veterans’ Affairs committees.

• He wants to reform the Department of Defense, which he believes is dangerously unprepared for war. But he does not want to just throw more money at it.
• “I would vote in favor of additional defense spending once we have fixed our acquisition process,” Sheehy said. He was co-founder of an aerospace company that contracted with the government.

What to watch: Sheehy will also have a seat on the Commerce committee, which was at the center of the debate over what to do about TikTok.

• “I’d be happy with it going away,” Sheehy said about the video social media app. “The Chinese government is taking a whole-of-government approach to undermine the integrity of, basically, our national sovereignty, and they’re using it to poison the minds of our kids.”
• President-elect Trump tried to ban TikTok during his first administration but has had a change of heart. He recently asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pause a ban on TikTok, set to go into effect this month.