Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren are teaming up to tackle a niche issue they say is costing the Department of Defense billions.
Together, Sheehy, a staunch supporter of President Trump, and Warren, the brunt of Trump’s more controversial insults, hope to nix contract provisions that force the military to rely on expensive contractors to fix its equipment.
“On both sides of the aisle, many of us agree that waste, fraud and abuse are real problems in our government — and it’s worse when it threatens our military readiness,” the two senators wrote in an opinion piece published by Fox News.
“It’s time to show service members we’ve got their backs and restore the right to fix their own equipment.”
The gist of the argument is that both sides of the political spectrum have failed to address “perverse incentives for contractors” in the DoD as U.S. troops aren’t allowed to fix “their own weapons and equipment.” The two allege long wait times, tedious bureaucracy and high expenses as the military depends on contractors for repairs.
Sheehy and and Warren note that in 2023 the DoD spent $450 billion on such contracts.
“That fine print means that every time something breaks, DoD must call the contractor, schedule a repair visit, and pay a hefty fee,” the senators wrote. “For some contracts, the repairs are more profitable than the original sale — a dynamic that represents how years of broken bureaucracy has slowed our acquisition process and driven costs higher and higher.”
Warren has previously supported the “right-to-repair" provision, issuing a statement in early May when Army Secretary Dan Driscoll announced he would implement them in future contracts.
She encouraged the Navy Secretary and Military Transportation Command Chief to do the same.
The senators plan to introduce a bill that would apply “right-to-repair" provisions across the board with hopes to cut expenses, increase military independence and encourage more competition in the contractor market.
“Giving the military the right to repair would save us billions,” they wrote. "But more importantly, it would reinvigorate the operational resilience of our forward-deployed elements and allow them to self-sustain.”
While the two senators don’t agree much when it comes to running the country, Warren said in an email to the Chronicle they found common ground on an issue she has long targeted.
“Senator Sheehy and I agree on this critical issue: the U.S. military deserves the right to repair its own weapons and equipment,” she said.
A spokesperson for Sheehy texted the Chronicle on Thursday to add that while Montana’s senator remains “a conservative and a strong supporter of the America First agenda,” he will work with anyone in the Senate to protect “warfighters” and “reduce wasteful spending at the Pentagon and fix our broken wildfire system.”
“Montanans want common sense, and that’s what I’m delivering,” Sheehy said.
Since arriving in the Senate in January after a tough election against three-time Democratic incumbent Jon Tester, Sheehy has had a notable streak of bipartisanship. He has introduced or co-sponsored 15 bills — many with Democrat support — to alter the wildfire response system in the U.S., hoping to cut regulations, increase response times and support year-round wildfire employment.
So far, one of those bills, to allow the sale of former military planes and plane parts, has been approved by the Senate.
Beyond tackling some of his stump-speech talking points, Sheehy has leaned heavily on his experience as a Navy SEAL and co-founder of the aerial wildland firefighting company, Bridger Aerospace in Belgrade.
