House and Senate leaders may point fingers when legislation is stalled, but in the case of a bill dealing with the ongoing genocide in Darfur everyone is one the same page and Congress still can’t get it together.

The House and Senate have not been able to complete legislation dealing with bolstering African Union forces and delivering other diplomatic slaps at the Sudanese government in Khartoum.

On June 30, 2005, House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) introduced H.R. 3127. A 416-3 roll call April 3 approved the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act of 2006.

On July 21, 2005, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) sponsored the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act of 2005, which passed by unanimous consent on Nov. 18, 2005.

House-Senate staff-level negotiations have been going on for weeks. The aim is to have an agreement and avoid a conference committee. Technically, the bill in the Senate is being “held at the desk,” which means that if the drafting ever gets done the legislation will sprint through the chamber.

Right now, however, things are moving at the pace of a stroll. The legislation had to be revised from its 2005 form because of the changing situation on the ground — and not for the better. The United States realizes the African Union forces can’t do the job and the United Nations and NATO need to send in troops.

The devil is always in the details. But any gulf seems possible to bridge.

Hyde’s staff is pushing for the language to be finished. However, the well-intentioned Brownback is not a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The Darfur measure has been pending too long: President Bush wants it. There is almost unanimous House-Senate agreement for the major items in the legislation. Between 200,000 and 400,000 have died, and more than 2 million people have been displaced. Even with all this comity, the bill still can’t get done.

• Hastert’s road trips. Catching up with the Speaker’s travels: On April 24, Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) headlined a lunch in Chicago for Rep. Robin Hayes (R-N.C.); later Hastert attended a dinner for the Anti-Defamation League in the city. He was in Washington the next day for a reception for his KOMPAC (Keep Our Majority PAC) leadership fund. On April 27 he went to Lewisburg, Pa., for a Rep. Don Sherwood (R-Pa.) funder; on April 28, to Nebraska to help Rep. Tom Osborne (R-Neb.) raise money for his governor’s race.

This morning, Hastert hosts a KOMPAC breakfast in Washington. On Friday, the Speaker is in California to help former Rep. Brian Bilbray’s House bid in La Jolla, and to Stockton for Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.). Bilbray is running for the seat vacated by the imprisoned former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R).

Hastert, an antique-car buff, is shopping for a alternative-fueled auto. The Speaker caught some flak when he rode a hydrogen-fueled car at a press event dealing with soaring gas prices — and then was photographed changing cars back into his standard-fuel vehicle to return to the fold of his security detail.

Said Hastert in his latest blog entry of the potential of renewable-fueled vehicles: “I rode in a hydrogen car recently. In fact, I’m such a proponent of renewable fuels, I have plans to soon buy my own flex-fuel car that can run on E85, which is an ethanol blend.”

Sweet is the Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it