I have a dumb question: If the United States Code is the authoritative law, what stops someone from finding some esoteric statute they want to change, and just publishing it differently than what the original legislation says?

It's not as if Congress goes back through it to make sure that no one slipped in a doozy.

And I know Congress could, if they caught wind of such trickery, pass yet more legislation to undo that, but given how onerous and slow-moving that process is, it could be years before it was fixed.

These dumb assholes need to start using git.