Congress takes quick action in Schiavo case

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. – As a deal in Congress was worked out to have federal courts decide Terri Schiavo’s fate, emotions swelled outside the brain-damaged woman’s hospice room Saturday, with protesters arrested after they symbolically tried to smuggle in bread and water on her second day without a feeding tube.

As supporters maintained a vigil outside the hospice, Schiavo’s mother pleaded for the 41-year-old woman’s life.

“We laugh together, we cry together, we smile together, we talk together,” Mary Schindler told reporters. “Please, please, please save my little girl.”

Congressional leaders announced a compromise between Senate and House Republicans that would allow the brain-damaged woman’s case to be reviewed by federal courts that could restore her feeding tube. Opposition waned after House leaders agreed to give up broader legislation and accept a narrowly crafted bill that applied only to Schiavo’s case.

The Senate convened briefly Sat-urday evening to give formal permission for the House to meet today, when it otherwise would be adjourned for the Easter recess.

The plan is for the House to act on the two-page bill today or just after midnight Monday morning. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said the Senate then would act on the House legislation, assuming it passes the House as envisioned, and rush the bill to the president for signature into law.

President Bush changed his schedule to return to Washington from his Texas ranch on Sunday to be on hand to sign the legislation.

“We should investigate every avenue before we take the life of a living human being,” said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. “That’s the very least we can do for her.”

Schiavo’s husband, Michael, who has fought her parents in court for years to have the feeding tube removed, urged Congress to stay out of the matter, saying he is just trying to carry out his wife’s wishes.

Lawyers for Schiavo’s husband concurred. “This case has been adjudicated, and to overrule the judiciary is an absolute crime,” attorney Hamden Baskin III told CNN on Saturday.

The measure would effectively take Schiavo’s fate out of Florida state courts, where judges ordered the feeding tube removed on Friday, and allow Schiavo’s parents to take their case to a federal judge. DeLay said that would likely mean restoration of the feeding tube “for as long as this appeal endures.”

“We’re elated primarily that they put politics to one side, and they’re concentrating on the issue of saving Terri’s life,” Schiavo’s father, Bob Schindler, said late Saturday.

Randall Terry, an anti-abortion activist who is acting as a Schindler family spokesman, said the parents also were concerned about the tight security in their daughter’s room, which includes a police officer standing guard.

“They are so determined to kill her that they don’t want mom or dad to even put an ice chip in her mouth,” Terry said.

Passage of the measure would require the presence of only a handful of lawmakers. Congress is on its spring recess, making it more difficult to locate lawmakers.

Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., issued a statement late Saturday saying he will make an objection that would stop the vote Sunday. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said he was trying to gather enough votes to defeat the bill Monday.

“This bill would have the federal government intrude into the most private, personal and painful family decision,” Blumenauer said. “What people need to think about is how would they feel if Tom DeLay or some other politician decided to second-guess your doctor, or your husband.”

Schiavo could linger for one or two weeks if the tube is not reinserted – as has happened twice before.

Doctors say Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery. Her husband has insisted she never wanted to live in such a condition.

“I am 100 percent sure,” Michael Schiavo said Saturday on NBC’s “Today.” He did not respond to requests for an interview from the Associated Press.

Michael Schiavo was at his wife’s bedside after the tube was removed and said he felt that “peace was happening” for her. “And I felt like she was finally going to get what she wants, and be at peace and be with the Lord,” he said.

About three dozen supporters of Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, maintained a vigil outside the hospice where she lives. Four people, including right wing leader James Gordon “Bo” Gritz, were arrested on misdemeanor trespassing charges when they attempted to bring Schiavo bread and water, which she would be unable to consume.

“A woman is being starved to death, and I have to do something,” said Brandi Swindell, 28, from Boise. “There are just certain things that you have to do, that you have to try.”