The Senate in floor voting adopted an amendment to expand restrictions on contracting out at DoD, the department that does by far the lion’s share of competitions among federal agencies. The amendment would prohibit contractors from gaining a competitive advantage by offering inferior or no retirement benefits–specifically, bidders could not devote less as a percentage of salary toward retirement benefits for their employees than federal agencies pay toward retirement benefits for FERS employees. The House bill doesn’t have similar language, which is a follow up to language that has been in the measure for several years—and appears again this year in both the House and Senate versions—to would bar bidders from gaining an advantage by offering health insurance to their employees that is inferior to what federal employees get through the FEHB program. Both bills also continue to require that the in-house bid be based on a “most efficient organization” and that bidders must show a saving of at least 10 percent or $10 million to win a bid involving more than 10 employees.