CONGRESS' DESIRED SPIRIT OF BIPARTISANSHIP UNRAVELING.

Byline: David Hess Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

Hopes for a productive year in Congress are fading.

The fragile spirit of bipartisanship that some wanted to foster is eroding in the face of a partisan investigation of the White House's campaign fund raising and the lack of progress in reaching a budget accord.

While it's too early in the two-year congressional cycle to predict what lawmakers might eventually accomplish, readings now are pessimistic.

``They don't have a clear agenda,'' said Lilliard Richardson, a political analyst at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. ``On none of the important issues can the two sides reach agreement. Without the pressure of an election this year, neither side feels any compelling need for action to show people they are getting things done.''

The real test facing members of Congress, as they begin returning Monday from a two-week break, is whether they can operate effectively on two tracks, said Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution here.

Congress is spending most of its time and energy on cranking up separate investigations of campaign-finance violations. Much less appears to be happening on a myriad of other issues now being debated in the committees.

``Apart from the campaign-finance scandals, it's hard to say what they'll be able to get done,'' Mann said. ``Perhaps one or two environmental bills - like renewing Superfund (to clean up toxic-waste sites) and the Clean Water Act - will find their way into law. But what else is hard to say.

``I think it reflects the weakness at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, and the difficulty of dealing with tough issues when the leadership is under fire,'' Mann said, referring to the problems facing both President Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.

Gingrich, in the wake of his admitted ethics violations, has faltered in his bid to re-exert strong leadership. There have been growing rumblings by Republicans about replacing him as speaker. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., recently referred to Gingrich as ``road kill on the highway of American politics.''

Besides the budget, the major pending business includes proposals to deregulate the electric utility industry; rewrite the Superfund, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts; rewrite the law that distributes highway funds and sets transportation policy; consider ways to revamp the campaign-finance system; renew the president's authority to expedite congressional consideration of trade agreements; overhaul job-training programs; and adopt a treaty to ban chemical weapons.