[Mulder]

Because in the House there are enough Republicans to keep the bill from coming up and letting it expire.

It doesn't matter.

The spineless SOBs like Hastert and company can always slip it into a bill during conference committee. They can put it on the "Congressional declaration of National bowling week" declaration, and pass it in the dead of night with no one reading the bill.

[Ancesthntr]

The spineless SOBs like Hastert and company can always slip it into a bill during conference committee. They can put it on the "Congressional declaration of National bowling week" declaration, and pass it in the dead of night with no one reading the bill.

That is undoubtedly true. What I have never understood is why the converse can't also be true - why can't a repeal of the '86 machine gun production ban, or the '68 GCA or the '34 NFA be slipped into some innocuous-sounding bill that no one notices? Why is it always at our expense?