Reagan Lobbies for Bill on Quiet Sunday at Home

President Reagan worked the telephone on Sunday, his first full day back at the White House after a week of hospitalization for cancer surgery, urging undecided senators to press for action on a stalled bill. And he told his doctors: “It’s sure nice to be back home.”

White House spokesman Peter Roussel said the 74-year-old President slept well after the jubilant reception by about 2,000 persons on his return by helicopter Saturday from the Bethesda Naval Medical Center, and spent a quiet Sunday devoted to reading, telephone calls and paper work in the family quarters of the White House.

“He’s looking forward to resuming his schedule, which, for the time being, has been cleared to permit a gradual return to work that will depend in large part on the pace of his recovery,” Roussel said.

Recovery Time Unknown

Exactly when recovery from the July 13 operation that removed a cancerous growth from his colon will permit the President to resume business as usual remained a question Sunday. Doctors have estimated that full recuperation will require six to eight weeks.

Reagan’s Sunday began about 8 a.m., Roussel said, after “a very restful first night home.”

The President had bananas, bran flakes, toast and honey for breakfast and saw his White House doctors, who reported that “his attitude is superb,” Roussel said.

Roussel said that Reagan, in telephone calls to as many as half a dozen senators, sought to rally votes for a new attempt to halt a filibuster that blocked the Senate last week from acting on legislation to permit the so-called line-item veto.

The proposal, which has been warmly supported by Reagan and several of his predecessors, would permit the President to veto individual items in appropriation bills, thus freeing him of the necessity to choose between accepting unwanted provisions or vetoing an entire bill.

Limited Schedule

No change is expected in the limited presidential schedule for this week that was announced upon Reagan’s return from the hospital.

Today he has plans for brief separate meetings with his chief of staff, Donald T. Regan; with his national security adviser, Robert C. McFarlane, and with Vice President George Bush. He also has a haircut scheduled.

On Tuesday, the President intends to go forward on a limited basis with plans to receive China’s President Li Xiannian, who began a 10-day U.S. tour Sunday at Niagara Falls, N.Y., and is scheduled to fly to Washington today. Li will be the guest of honor at a black-tie White House dinner Tuesday night, at which the recuperating Reagan plans to dispense with the customary receiving line, which normally keeps him on his feet for at least half an hour.

No appointments have yet been listed for the rest of the week, and Roussel said the White House staff will “take it a day at a time” in making further plans. But Roussel predicted: “You’ll see him gradually working into a regular schedule.”

The White House has denied that the President’s recuperation requires medication. It is expected, however, that his physicians will conduct frequent tests to make sure there is no recurrence of the cancer.