In an extraordinary emergency session during an aborted two-week Easter vacation, political leaders scrambled to return their flocks to Capitol Hill on Sunday night to vote on a lone piece of legislation, ``An Act for the Relief of the Parents of Theresa Marie Schiavo.''

The law, blocked in the House on Sunday afternoon when a group of Democrats, led by Rep. Jim Davis of Tampa, rejected a voice vote, passed at 12:42 a.m. today, capping a crusade in Congress by Florida Republicans Sen. Mel Martinez, of Orlando, and Rep. Dave Weldon, of Palm Bay.

The House, after three hours of debate, passed the so-called ``Palm Sunday Compromise'' 203-58. The Senate unanimously passed the same bill Sunday.

Bush, cutting short a Texas vacation, signed the bill shortly after its passage, vowing in a statement to "stand on the side of those defending life for all Americans, including those with disabilities."

"In cases 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 said.

Schiavo's parents, meanwhile, notified a Pinellas Park hospice that their daughter's feeding tube, withdrawn Friday by a state judge's order, possibly could be reinserted today.

The bill empowers a federal judge in the Middle District of Florida in Tampa to decide whether to replace the feeding tube temporarily while weighing legal and medical aspects of the case. The judge will be chosen randomly.

The Schiavo case, a cause celebre among ``culture of life'' conservatives, appears to have eclipsed the Iraq war, spiraling spending, and debates over the course of Social Security.

The unusual intervention of the nation's leaders in a wrenching private tragedy and family feud that drove a seven- year skirmish in Florida courts, culminating last year in actions by Florida's Legislature and Supreme Court, has acquired ideological, religious and political overtones.

Legal specialists could not predict if the law would withstand legal challenge. House Speaker DeLay, R-Tex., acknowledged the uncertainties.

According to Martinez, a federal judge will ``try the case all over again, allowing for new medical evidence and also the parents' interests.''

Going Too Far?

The highly-publicized battle over Schiavo's right to live or die escalated into a full- fledged political and ideological showdown over the appropriateness of Washington's intervention in a type of case generally left to state judges.

At the outset of debate Sunday night, Wisconsin Republican James Sensenbrenner, House Judiciary Committee chairman, urged colleagues to ``affirm the sanctity of life.''

He compared the effort to the 1960s civil rights struggle, requiring federal intervention in state decisions.

``We're not talking simply about Terri Schiavo,'' said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C. ``We're taking on one of the great moral issues of the day: our right to life.''

Democrats accused Republicans of overstepping, creating constitutional conflicts between lawmakers, courts, and federal and state governments.

``These actions today are a clear threat to our democracy,'' said Davis. Congress is ``telling states and courts that their decisions and rules do not matter.''

``Congress should be following the law, not trampling the Constitution,'' he added.

Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank said Congress had made itself a ``Super Supreme Court of Florida.''

``We're acting as a court, not a Congress,'' he said. ``We ought to just stay the hell out of this.''

Among critics of Congress' action: Harvard University law professor Laurence Tribe, who told the Christian Science Monitor: ``Congress' overreaching flies in the face of our entire system of checks and balances, trashes the partial sovereignty of the states, and flouts the protections our laws afford state adjudication from drive-by attacks by those disaffected with the results.''

For politicians counting on a two-week Easter break, the sudden emergency session meant quick adjustments and an atmosphere some likened to the drama surrounding votes on whether to go to war.

Davis had planned to spend Palm Sunday with his family. Instead, he managed the not- so-simple feat, especially at a time of year when students swarm between campuses and Florida, of securing a seat on a commercial airliner.

Other members of Congress has similar difficulties, and not everyone made it to vote.

Debate at times turned emotional as members of Congress referred to grappling with life-and-death decisions in their own families - and with what to do Sunday night.

Ginny Brown-Waite, a Republican from Crystal River, spent Sunday seeking counsel from medical professionals.

``I burned up the phone calling health care officials back in Florida . . . avidly pro-life people,'' she said. Their conclusion: Fifteen years in a vegetative state is ``too long to suffer.''

She asked her daughter, at 41 the same age as Terri Schiavo, what she would want. She said ``Mom, if you really loved me, you'd want me to rest and meet the Lord.''

Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., countered with personal impressions of her own. ``Terri smiles . . . she cries,'' said Musgrave. ``How heartless are we to call someone like Terri Schiavo a vegetable.''

Emergency sessions of Congress are rare, especially this time of year and on issues involving one person's fate.

Under House rules, a vote cannot occur on a Sunday, so Republican leaders waited until after midnight. That gave House members time to return to Washington from across the nation.

Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, want to keep her alive. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, does not. While the state trial judge weighed medical evidence, Congress did not.

Abetting controversy was a videotape from three years ago showing Terri Shiavo - child-like, helpless, perhaps smiling, perhaps not. No recent images have been publicized.

``Congress should not play doctor,'' said Rush Holt, D-N.J., especially by ''long-distance video.''

Severely brain damaged, Schiavo has been incapacitated for 15 years. At least 19 judges have reviewed the case, and her fate was weighed on separate occasions by Florida's Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush.

Jim Moran, a Democratic congressman from Northern Virginia, criticized Congress' priorities, noting federal lawmakers recently stripped billions of dollars from Medicaid for poor people in nursing homes - an issue ``that affects how they are going to live and die as well.''

Schiavo has become a ``political pawn,'' he asserted.

``The compassion comes out in this one case,'' complained Rep Mel Watt, D-N.C., arriving by plane just before midnight. Estimating the vote cost taxpayers $4 million, he wondered aloud how many hungry children might be fed with so much money.

``How many feeding tubes have we withdrawn by our indifference?''

While she can breathe on her own, Schiavo needs the feeding tube to stay alive. Without it she might survive about two weeks or less. Some people die within 96 hours.

Schiavo went without food and water for two days in 2001, until a judge ordered the tube reinserted. Again in October 2003 it was removed but Gov. Jeb Bush prevailed with ``Terri's Law,'' legislation that led to reinsertion six days later.

Florida's Supreme Court in 2004 said Gov. Bush had overstepped his authority and declared the state law unconstitutional. In Tallahassee and Washington, Republicans persisted.

Political analysts and internal congressional documents indicate that while many politicians appear to feel strongly about the case, some also are thinking about political ramifications. The Washington Post reported Sunday on a Senate GOP document that said the Schiavo vote would help gain support among conservatives and defeat Democrats such as Florida U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

Sen. John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, told ABC television on Sunday: ``I hope we're not making this human tragedy a political issue.''

Specifically, the bill allows Schiavo's parents to ask a federal judge whether withdrawing life-sustaining food and medical treatment violated her constitutional rights.

The U.S. District Court, after determining merits of the suit, ``shall issue such declaratory and injunctive relief as may be necessary to protect the rights'' of Schiavo, the bill states.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Tribine reporters Adam Emerson and Josh Poltilove also contributed to this report.