1996? What 1996?

Another presidential election campaign is underway, and candidates and the political parties are pulling in cash in record amounts. It’s as if nothing happened four years ago, as if Americans were not outraged by fund-raising abuse in the 1996 presidential campaign--Lincoln Bedroom sleepovers for big givers, coffees in the White House and the spending of millions in so-called soft money in violation of the spirit of existing law.

Democrats and Republicans can continue to rake in unlimited amounts because Congress refuses to reform an archaic fund-raising law that’s been riddled with loopholes since its passage in the wake of the 1972 Watergate scandal. Majorities in both the House and the Senate have gone on record supporting reform, but they repeatedly are denied the chance to enact it by Republican leaders. Why? The present system favors incumbents over challengers and works to the advantage of Republicans, who out-raised Democrats in soft money by $114 million to $80 million during the 1997-98 election cycle.

The major goal of would-be reformers is to ban soft money, unregulated funds that are supposed to be used for party-building activities such as voter registration but instead are directed to candidates.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), under growing pressure from his colleagues, promises to schedule debate by the end of September on the bipartisan campaign reform bill sponsored by Reps. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and Martin T. Meehan (D-Mass.).

But that is no favor. This schedule would doom the legislation, even if it passed the House, because it would not leave the authors time to overcome a probable filibuster in the Senate. At the very latest, Shays-Meehan should be scheduled for debate and a final vote before Congress leaves on its summer recess Aug. 6. Sooner is even better.

The situation is much as it was a year ago. Then-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) finally agreed to allow a vote on Shays-Meehan after Democrats and many Republicans launched a petition drive to force a floor vote. The bill passed on a surprisingly strong vote of 252 to 179, but the issue died in the Senate.

Democrats now have launched another attempt to bring the bill to the floor of Congress, having collected 196 signatures by the end of last week. But Republican reformers so far have declined to sign, claiming deference to Hastert, a new speaker who is trying to get the House to work together. Even so, GOP reformers such as Reps. Zack Wamp (Tenn.) and Marge Roukema (N.J.) are losing patience.

The voters want reform. A majority in each chamber wants reform. Those who stand in their way are not acting in the best interests of their nation.