Excerpt: The Senate on Wednesday advanced major legislation that includes several provisions expanding federal employees' options under the Thrift Savings Plan, but does not allow some employees to count unused sick leave toward retirement savings. In a 67-30 vote to end legislative debate, lawmakers moved H.R. 1256 forward, but without an amendment that would have enabled federal workers in the Federal Employees Retirement System to count unused sick leave toward their retirement annuities -- a benefit employees in the older Civil Service Retirement System currently have.