WASHINGTON - Sen. Dick Durbin is urging increased federal spending on highway repairs as early as next year.

"We're going to be looking for the most bang for the buck (on job creation)," the Springfield Democrat said during a joint news conference last week with Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania.

Transportation investment is at an impasse in Congress, where lawmakers are divided over when to start a multi-year renewal of the federal highway spending program.

The House favors moving forward with a six-year $450 billion measure. But the Senate prefers to delay the expensive bill after the 2010 elections, pushing for an 18-month extension of the current formula instead.

Such an extension passed both the House and Senate Thursday, when both chambers approved a measure continuing federal government funding at fiscal 2009 levels until mid-December.

The key issue lawmakers are facing for a longer-term measure is how to pay for it without borrowing the money, a solution that would add to the federal deficit.

Durbin, however, said he is not satisfied with short-term solutions. He argued that "stopgap extensions (of existing laws) make it very difficult" for states to plan elaborate new projects. Although he voted for the extension, Durbin suggested a compromise that would make it possible to borrow money from the multi-year highway spending program before it is actually put in place.

"How can we front-load the investment for a new federal highway bill to put the most impact on the economy, creating jobs as quickly as possible?" Durbin asked.

The idea would allow Democrats to spend billions of dollars on transportation projects in 2010, therefore creating jobs in an election year.

But the decision on how to properly renew the program would be deferred until after the midterm elections.

Durbin said he hadn't decided how much money his plan would front-load, and made it clear that he was not speaking on behalf of other Senate Democratic leaders but only for himself.

Rendell, co-chairman of the infrastructure advocacy group Building America's Future, has long called for increasing federal spending on transportation and infrastructure. He suggested a $150 billion figure.

Durbin vowed to work on such a plan with fellow senators and House Transportation Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar, a Democrat from Minnesota, once health care is completed.

"After health care reform, we'll be focused even more on the economy and jobs (particularly infrastructure and transportation spending)," he said.

He said he expects a focus on infrastructure will have broad bipartisan support.