A handful of Republicans defied Mr. Hastert to work with Democrats on campaign-finance legislation.

In hearings this week by the House Oversight Committee, several lawmakers who are sponsoring campaign-finance legislation were given five minutes to summarize their bills.

In his public statements, Mr. McConnell argues that current campaign-finance legislation would infringe on free speech protections of the First Amendment.

The Senate blocked campaign-finance legislation.

In some campaigns since then, said Mr. Dingell, a Democrat who supported the campaign-finance legislation, he has spent more than $1 million.

Mr. McAuliffe said the growth in hard-money donations showed that the party was well positioned for fund-raising if the campaign-finance legislation known as the McCain-Feingold bill became law.

Congress has not seriously considered campaign-finance legislation since 1994, when the House stalled until early fall on a compromise bill with the Senate.

Senator Trent Lott, the majority leader, proposed amending the main bipartisan campaign-finance legislation in Congress today with a provision that Democrats immediately denounced as a ploy to kill the bill.

A day after Senate leaders agreed to debate campaign-finance legislation this fall, the House majority leader said today that the House would also consider a similar bill this year.

In recent weeks, some Republicans rebelled and joined Democrats to overturn Republican-set rules for a debate on campaign-finance legislation.