The National Republican Congressional Committee raked in a whopping $20 million in the second quarter of the year and ended June with an unprecedented $16.5 million in the bank, as the House Republicans’ campaign arm continues to lead all other Congressional committees in the race for 2006 campaign cash.

Reports due to be filed with the Federal Election Commission this week will show the NRCC raised $7.9 million in June and spent $4.5 million, bringing the committee’s total raised so far this cycle to just shy of $40 million. The committee raised an estimated $14 million in conjunction with last month’s President’s Dinner.

“The NRCC’s record fundraising numbers are a testament to the support we have across America and to the hard work of every Member of our caucus,” NRCC Chairman Tom Reynolds (N.Y.) said in a statement. “Voters have seen all a Republican Congress can achieve, including a lower deficit and an improved economy, and are donating to support the future a Republican majority offers, and thereby rejecting the Democrats’ lack of ideas and their policy of obstruction.”

While the NRCC — like other partisan campaign committees — is raising cash at a faster clip than ever before in the post-campaign finance reform era, it is also banking significantly more now that it has previous cycles.

Six months into the 2004 election cycle, the committee showed a cash balance of $6.6 million, as the NRCC was banking just 15 cents of every dollar raised. The committee is now keeping 39 cents of every dollar raised due to efforts to lower overhead and cut down on fundraising expenses, including restructuring its contract with InfoCision, a telemarketing firm.

Last week, House Democrats also touted their second-quarter fundraising numbers as record-setting. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised $12 million in the second quarter of the year, including $7 million in June.

The DCCC ended last month with $8.7 million in the bank, although it is still shouldering almost $3.7 million in debts from the previous cycle.

Both DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) called the Democrats’ showing a sign that the GOP-controlled Congress is ethically challenged and beholden to special interest groups.

But NRCC spokesman Carl Forti said that Republicans’ fundraising proves otherwise.

“I think the fact that our cash on hand is $10 million more than it was two years ago and Democrats are only $200,000 ahead of where they were says everything you need to know about who has support across America,” Forti said. “We have never had this much cash on hand at this point.”

But Democrats said the cash-on-hand figure is deceptive. Sarah Feinberg, a spokeswoman for the DCCC, said that despite the NRCC’s robust cash figure, House Republicans have actually raised about $5.5 million less overall than they had at this point in the 2004 election cycle.

“A decade in the majority spent carrying water for special interests means the GOP will always have a money advantage, but the fact that the NRCC has raised less this cycle than they did last cycle is startling,” she said.