funny "error"

Have a complex page (5000 lines long) that uses Spry tabs.  I made what i thought was a trivial change to the page and now it's broken, i.e. it stops processing the page for some strange reason.  Here's the 1 line that breaks the page.  If I remove it, the page works fine

, if i add it coldfusion doesn't render the remainder of the page.  Another twist is that, if I add a cfdump tag just before it, the page works fine!

<cfif IsDefined('URL.Request_ID')>
     <!---if i add this line the page works fine!--->

     <cfdump var="#qGet_Request.Travel_Request_Status#">

    <!--- the next line is the one that breaks the page--->
    <cfoutput><cfinput type="hidden" name="hidCurrRequestStatus" id="hidCurrRequestStatus" value="#qGet_Request.Travel_Request_Status#"></cfoutput>

</cfif>

I'd rather not have to display the status on the screen.  Any ideas anyone?