Shame on them for not consulting a dictionary?

OK, so you are a legislator and you have been trying to get a bill passed for 20 years with no luck. So rather than using a commonly known word, you use a less well known word that means the same thing, slip your content into a related bill, and it passes. Is this ethical? Are the legislators who didn't read and check the content to blame? The committee chair in question has been stripped of his position, but the bill will probably be signed by the governor, sanctioning midwifery in Missouri for the first time.