catfish amendment
n.— «The exact day the first North Carolina politician hooked his thumbs in his suspenders and referred to a “catfish amendment” is probably lost to history.…The term refers to a proposed change on a bill that sounds friendly but is actually a sly attempt to kill it. Usually, that’s by adding a provision that would turn off supporters or make the law vastly more expensive.…“There was always some guy getting up talking about a catfish amendment,” he said. “But Cutlar was the one who got the most mileage out of it.” Over time, the joke was forgotten, but the term stuck around, and not just in North Carolina. Lobbyists in Georgia use the word “catfishing” to describe their attempts to load up a bill with killer amendments. One lobbyist is known by the nickname “Catfish” for his ability to do so.» —“‘Catfish amendment’ phrase caught on” by Ryan Teague Beckwith News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina) July 5, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Is it just desserts or just deserts? Gina from Harvest, Alabama, says that when using this phrase, she’d always pictured dessert, as in “the treat someone deserves,” but the correct term is indeed just deserts. This particular desert isn’t an arid...
After Diana from Williamsburg, Virginia, scraped the front of her leg on a chair, she fretted to her grown daughters she had barked her shin. Neither daughter had ever heard the expression. This kind of bark refers not to what a dog does, but to...