Reagan Vows to Get Contra Aid : Seeks $42 Million, He Says, Pounding Desk

President Reagan and his supporters in Congress, declaring that a bipartisan consensus now supports aid to the rebels fighting Nicaragua’s leftist government, agreed Tuesday to seek $42 million for the contras in votes that could come as early as this week.

Reagan, pounding his desk for emphasis, told congressional leaders that he is frustrated by Democrats’ resistance to his policy on Nicaragua.

“We have to get to where we can run a foreign policy without a committee of 535 telling us what to do,” the President told Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.), as well as other Senate and House Republican leaders.

House Democrats blocked a request for renewed aid to the contras only four weeks ago, but Democratic leaders said Tuesday that they are ready to reconsider the issue and are certain that some form of funding will pass.

“It’s clear that some kind of aid is going to win,” said a key Democratic congressman who asked not to be quoted by name. “The only question is what kind of restrictions we can put on it.”

Reagan got support from visiting President Roberto Suazo Cordova of Honduras, who said that Congress’ earlier vote “was a victory for (Nicaraguan) President Daniel Ortega and the Communist Party.

“And while I can’t interfere in American domestic politics. . . ,” Suazo added during a White House photo session, “I think the American people should think about this and praise the Lord God Almighty for inspiring the President (Reagan) in his decisions.”

Reagan responded with a formal reaffirmation of the U.S. commitment to defend Honduras against outside attack--something Suazo’s government has long sought--and a promise to release $147 million in economic aid.

“Honduras is a friendly nation facing the threat of Communist aggression and subversion,” Reagan said. He added that the United States has a clear commitment “to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Honduras.”

Nicaragua, attacking contra units based in camps inside Honduras, has sent troops and artillery fire across the border in several incidents in recent weeks. The Honduran army has reacted by closing three contra bases and moving many of the rebels away from the border, a development that, some U.S. officials fear, may further restrict their ability to fight inside Nicaragua.

Shultz, Motley Speeches

Reagan’s opening shot in a new campaign for aid to the contras was backed by speeches from Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Assistant Secretary of State Langhorne A. Motley.

Shultz told a business group that unless the United States enables the rebels to escalate their war against the Sandinista government, Nicaragua could “become a permanent base for exporting Communist revolution and subversion elsewhere in the hemisphere.”

And Motley, making obvious his scorn for the Democrats, said: “If you were a Honduran, what the hell would you think about U.S. resolve? . . . . The U.S. Congress can’t make up its mind to go to the bathroom.”

Michel said he believes that House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.) and most other Democrats will now agree to an Administration request for non-military aid to the contras that would include funding for fiscal 1986, which begins Oct. 1, as well as the remaining four months of the current fiscal year.

“I think we tentatively have some agreement that the Speaker would be amenable to,” he said, “a figure that would fold in ’85 and ’86 so that we just address the subject matter one time. . . . But there is still some difference of opinion as to just how far we go in our House package.”

Democrats Would Support

An aide to O’Neill said the Speaker would have no comment. Other key Democrats said they would support multi-year funding for the contras if it included a strict prohibition against military aid and if it was not administered by the CIA.

Michel said he hopes to combine the Administration’s 1985 request for $14 million and its 1986 request for $28 million in a $42-million package, an approach that White House spokesman Larry Speakes said Reagan favors.

Speakes and other White House officials refused to say whether Reagan would accept funding with the kind of restrictions the Democrats are seeking. The President initially sought wholly military aid channeled through the CIA.

Dole said a bipartisan proposal probably will be put to a vote in the Senate this week, and Michel said House action is expected to follow within a few days. The Senate proposal, written by conservative Democrat Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), would approve a total of $32 million in non-military aid for 1985 and 1986, to be administered directly by the National Security Council.