This vote was on an amendment by Tom Coburn, R-Okla., that would require that funds in the bill used for contracts or grants be awarded using a competitive bidding process.  The amendment was offered to the bill that funds the Homeland Security Department in fiscal 2010.

“This is a simple amendment. It is a commonsense amendment. It says we should competitively bid contracts at the Department of Homeland Security, and we should competitively bid grants. If you vote against my amendment, you are saying we should not. That is all there is to it,” Coburn said.

Patty Murray, D-Wash., had just previously offered an amendment that stipulates that contracts and grants should be competitively bid, with the exception of those awarded to small businesses and women and minority owned businesses (see vote 226).  She said Coburn’s amendment would completely erase the effect of her just-adopted amendment.

“The Senate just adopted an amendment that ensures that the government contracts are competitively awarded. The amendment Senator Coburn is now offering will undo everything we just did to assure that all businesses—small business, minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, businesses owned by service-disabled veterans—will be eligible to bid on these contracts,” Murray said.

By a vote of 31-60, the amendment was rejected.  Of Republicans present, 27 voted for the amendment and 10 voted against it.  All but four Democrats present voted against the amendment.  The end result is that the measure went forward without language that would have stipulated that all contracts and grants at the Homeland Security Department must be competitively bid, no matter who the recipient is.