By Edward Epstein, CQ Staff

President-elect Barack Obama said Friday he will make an economic stimulus package the “first thing” Congress does next year if it is not passed in an expected lame-duck session this month.

“I want to see a stimulus sooner rather than later,” Obama said at his first post-election news conference. “If not in the lame-duck, it will be the first thing I get done as the president of the United States.”

The Senate plans a post-election session starting the week of Nov. 17, and Democratic leaders in the House, which passed a $61 billion stimulus package Sept. 26 that so far has languished in the Senate, are discussing whether they should bring their chamber back to pass a larger stimulus. But congressional Republicans and the White House are cool to the idea and Democrats say they won’t bother unless they can get agreement on legislation.

Obama’s statement and news that unemployment was at a 14-year high of 6.5 percent, with 240,000 jobs lost in October could increase pressure on them to agree.

“Today’s economic news should send a clear signal to Republicans in the Senate and to President Bush that they must join us in an effort leading economists agree is critical,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., said.

But Minority Leader John A. Boehner , R-Ohio, said Democrats can’t count on Republican support without giving their ideas due respect.

“President-elect Obama has expressed a desire to govern from the center. In that spirit, I’m hopeful he will give our plan his full consideration as he assembles his economic team,” Boehner said.

Democrats are talking about raising the size of their $61 billion package to about $100 billion and then coming back in the 111th Congress for another package of about $200 billion. They are talking about a package that would include spending on infrastructure, extended unemployment benefits money for food stamps and aid to hard-pressed states and local governments. House Democratic leaders are considering plans to include Obama’s proposed tax cuts targeting middle-income Americans as part of the package.

Obama held his news conference in downtown Chicago after meeting with his economic advisory board, a 17-member group including Clinton administration veterans such as former Treasury secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers, ex-Labor Secretary Robert Reich and former Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Laura Tyson, along with business leaders such as Berkshire Hathaway billionaire Warren Buffett and Google Inc. Chairman Eric Schmidt,

Obama said he realizes he will have to move rapidly to deal not only with rising joblessness, but also with a continuing credit crunch that has made banks reluctant to lend money. The combination of a recessionary economy and the drying up of credit has been particularly painful for U.S. automakers, who are lobbying Congress for more financial aid, in addition to the $25 billion that Congress and Bush have already approved to help them retool over the next few years to produce more fuel-efficient models.

“The auto industry is the backbone of American manufacturing,” Obama said. He echoed the automakers’ call for the administration to expedite release of the first of the $25 billion, but said more needs to be done. He said his transition advisers “are working on additional policy options” and to see if more legislation is needed.

Obama said he plans to discuss the financial crisis and the economic slowdown in a White House meeting Monday with President Bush, whose administration so far has expressed deep reservations about the second stimulus package that Democrats have proposed.