If Congress provides the wherewithal by January, Providence could complete 79 capital projects worth $527 million and generate 7,000 new jobs in the span of two years, Mayor David N. Cicilline told congressional leaders in Washington yesterday.

Cicilline was among nine chief executives, representing the U.S. Conference of Mayors, who made their case for getting federal economic-stimulus money to the cities sooner rather than later, in morning meetings on Capitol Hill with leaders including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Congress is expected to have a bill proposing a multibillion-dollar infusion into states ready when President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January, but the final amount of aid and how it will be disbursed is still up in the air.

“If the objective is to move resources quickly, then the fastest and most efficient way is to send the money directly to cities,” Cicilline said following the morning meetings at the Capitol. “We have public-works departments and planning departments to do this work and have been doing this work. … This is an opportunity to create jobs, rebuild our infrastructure and prepare our cities for the 21st-century economy.”

The conference used the occasion to release a report identifying local infrastructure projects that could be started and completed in cities in the next two years.

Projects included transit and highway improvements, “green” jobs initiatives, school renovations, public safety and public housing and projects that qualify for Community Development Block Grants.

Those projects, when combined with a list of city initiatives the mayors conference released last month, represents $98 billion in projects that could be finished in two years and create more than a million jobs.

In Providence, the identified projects range from those that have long been on the drawing board (a $20-million streetcar system downtown), are in the works (the $90-million renovation of Mount Pleasant High School and other school renovations), or in development (a $12.7-million investment in energy-producing wind turbines at Fields Point).

“There is nothing on that list that we believe can’t go forward in two years,” Cicilline said.

The list also includes the multiphase sewer project in Warwick and a number of public-works projects in Woonsocket. The two communities identified a total of 16 projects worth $116 million and that would create more than 1,300 new jobs.

The mayors conference argues that the key to reviving the national economy is sending the federal funds directly to city governments, rather than state governments, which have also been clamoring for federal government aid.

But Cicilline says that the debate over how federal money should be distributed should not be viewed as a competition between the states and the cities.

“This is not about governors competing with mayors competing with the federal government. Everyone will be working together on this,” he says. “Most governors would acknowledge that the public process of approving government projects takes time. … There are studies, the planning process, public hearings. … We’ve already done much of that,” for the projects identified, Cicilline said.

Governor Carcieri, who declined to comment yesterday, joined the National Governors Association for a meeting with President-elect Obama last week in which governors made their own pitch for federal aid.

The governors association told Obama that states needed $136 billion for infrastructure projects and $40 billion to cover Medicaid costs.

Cicilline and Stamford (Conn.) Mayor Dannel Malloy were the only New Englanders in the delegation that went to Capitol Hill yesterday. The group also included the mayors of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas.

pmarcelo@projo.com