Lawmakers scramble in Schiavo case

WASHINGTON -- On Capitol Hill and in the State House in Tallahassee, legislators struggled to stop the removal of a feeding tube from a brain-damaged Florida woman.

But their efforts fell short, and unless the Florida Senate votes this morning to prohibit the removal of the tube from Terri Schiavo, who has been living in a persistent vegetative state in a hospice in Pinellas Park, her husband will be free at 1 p.m. EST today to stop the feeding that has kept her alive for 15 years.

In a rare effort to intervene in a pending legal dispute, the US House approved late Wednesday legislation to force Schiavo's case out of the Florida courts and into the federal system, and the Senate passed a similar measure yesterday. But House members adjourned for a two-week recess before the competing versions could be reconciled. If Schiavo's feeding tube is removed today, doctors expect her to live two weeks, so she will probably be dead before lawmakers return to Washington.

Those fighting to keep Schiavo alive, including her parents and Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, still hope the state Legislature might intervene, but lawmakers were at an impasse yesterday. The Florida Senate voted 21 to 16 to reject a bill that would have prevented the removal of feeding tubes from patients whose families are split on whether to continue the feeding.

House members hope that the state Senate might consider its version of similar legislation today, but state Senator Rod Smith, a Democrat from Gainesville, told the Associated Press that ''the last vote was a fairly emphatic statement that the Senate does not wish to go further."

Schiavo, 41, suffered severe brain damage 15 years ago when her heart temporarily stopped. Court-appointed doctors say she is in a persistent vegetative state, but US Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee -- a physician -- told the Senate he disagreed with that diagnosis after viewing videotapes of Schiavo. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, has said she would not want to be kept alive under such conditions, putting him at odds with her parents, who have battled to keep her feeding tube in place.

Schiavo's case has drawn nationwide attention for months. President Bush yesterday called the case complex, but he said when ''there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws, and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life."

Both houses of Congress agreed this week -- in unrecorded voice votes -- to let federal courts take the Schiavo case away from Florida's courts.

The House bill would require federal courts to review cases involving ''incapacitated" people.

But some senators from both parties said the House language was too broad. At 5:35 p.m., the Senate approved a bill that would apply only to Schiavo and would allow, but not require, a federal court review of her case. But the House had adjourned 75 minutes earlier.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois and House majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas said in a statement, ''It's unconscionable that Senate Democrats . . . would not allow a vote to move forward on critical legislation the House passed last night to save and protect Terri Schiavo's life."

But key GOP senators, including Conference Chairman Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican, defended their Democratic colleagues and said the Senate had done all it possibly could, under rules that require unanimous consent, to vote on a bill on short notice.

Senate minority leader Harry Reid of Nevada said, ''If the House Republicans refuse to pass our bipartisan bill, they bear responsibility for the consequences."