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As a deadline loomed, U.S. Senate Republicans sought to keep severely brain-damaged Terri Schiavo alive Friday with an invitation to bring her to Washington, and an attorney for her parents said they hoped the move would buy them more time.

The Senate Health Committee has requested that Terri Schiavo and her husband, Michael, appear at an official committee hearing on March 28. Earlier Friday, a House committee was issuing congressional subpoenas to stop doctors from disconnecting the tube.

Congressional leaders, who expect to continue negotiating over their differences, now say they expect by next week craft a law that would sustain Schiavo's life.

The extraordinary step of issuing subpoenas to Schiavo's doctors, by the House Committee on Government Reform, `will require hospice administrators and attending physicians to preserve nutrition and hydration` for Schiavo long enough `to allow Congress to fully understand the procedures and practices that are currently keeping her alive,` House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and House Majority leader Tom DeLay said in a joint statement early this morning.

Later this morning, Mike Enzi, the Republican chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, formally requested the presence of Schiavo's parents, who have waged a seven-year battle to sustain their daughter's life, at a Monday hearing.

`The purpose,` said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a doctor, is `to review health care policies and practices relevant to the care of non-ambulatory persons such as Mrs. Schiavo.`

Hastert and DeLay called long-term care of incapacitated adults, `an issue of growing importance to the federal government and federal healthcare policy.

The statements came only hours hours after the apparent unraveling of last-ditch attempts by the Florida Legislature and U.S. Congress to keep Schiavo alive. By a judge's order, she was to be disconnected from life-sustaining nutrition and hydration at 1 p.m. today.

Congress -- which was supposed to start a two-week recess today -- now appears braced to return for an extraordinary session on Monday because of attention surrounding the Schiavo case. Even if Schiavo's feeding tube is removed at 1 p.m. Friday, death would not be instantaneous.

In a White House statement, President Bush said, `In instances like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws, and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life.`

Bush is in Pensacola and Orlando today to talk about Social Security.

Kerry Feehery, spokesman to Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, said the Senate would reconvene at 4 p.m. Monday to take up the Schiavo case `and both chambers are going to work on it over the weekend.. House leaders have agreed with this plan. While discussions over possible legislative remedies continue, the Senate and the House are taking action to keep her alive in the interim.`

Democrats such as Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon caution that Republicans are grabbing for headlines, votes among conservatives and religious groups, and moving too rashly in changing law, altering relationships between states and the federal government, and acting on behalf of one individual.