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Democrats on the Judiciary Committee joined Republicans in voting to pass the bill, which would create a fund to help victims of human trafficking, out of committee. But when Democrats realized this week that the bill included a provision barring money from the fund from being used to fund most abortions, they reversed their position and repeatedly filibustered the bill.

READ: House GOP members threatening to take budget down

Now both parties are pointing fingers, with Democrats saying they were unaware of the addition of the abortion provision, and Republicans insisting they knew ahead of time.

An exasperated Sen. Dick Durbin put it succinctly in an interview with Politico this week.

"What do you want me to tell you? We missed it!" he said, asked why Democrats didn't catch the language. "It was an obscure reference. Clearly if it had been front and center, we would have caught it."

The snafu isn't all that unusual, however it highlights the age-old bipartisan practice of having the nerds do the legwork for the jocks, or the staffers parse bills for members of Congress.

Former Rep. Jim Moran, a Democrat from Virginia, said typically lawmakers either trusted their staff or each other to keep them informed on the specifics of legislation. But he noted that lawmakers don't intend to punt the hard stuff; rather, it's a necessary tactic to make a busy job more manageable.

"The reality is that members don't have the time to read all the bills that come to the floor," he said. "It really wouldn't be a particularly good use of their time, because they're busy in committee meetings and dealing with their staff and their constituents."

Jim Manley, a former communications adviser for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, said it was typical protocol for lawmakers of all stripes.

"The fact of the matter is, I'm not so sure how many members read bills. And I'm also not sure whether members should be spending that much time reading bills in the first place that's why God created staff," he said.

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Congress fails to do its homework (again)