A once-popular bill to help victims of sex trafficking was derailed in the Senate recently when Democrats discovered that language restricting funding for abortions was in the bill — sneaked in, they charged, by Republicans.
If Democrats truly were shocked to find it in the bill (there’s evidence that wasn’t the case), they shouldn’t have been. It’s an easy problem to fix.
There are ways to avoid a legislative surprise, like better education and training of congressional staffers or careful consideration of bills by committees. There’s another one: Treat each bill as if it were a page on the web, with links to all of the laws and regulations it affects.