Washington ? Congress approved emergency legislation early today to let Terri Schiavo’s parents ask a federal judge to prolong their daughter’s life, capping days of emotional debate about who should decide life and death.

President Bush waited at the White House to sign the measure permitting a federal review of the case, which could trigger the reinsertion of feeding tubes needed to keep the brain-damaged Florida woman alive.

The House passed the bill on a 203-58 vote after calling lawmakers back for an emergency Sunday session for debate that stretched past midnight.

The Senate approved the bill Sunday by voice vote.

Republican supporters said the “Palm Sunday Compromise” seeks to protect the constitutional rights of a disabled person and rejected suggestions that political motives lay behind the last-minute maneuver.

“When a person’s intentions regarding whether to receive lifesaving treatment are unclear, the responsibility of a compassionate nation is to affirm that person’s right to life,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. “In our deeds and public actions, we must build a culture of life that welcomes and defends all human life.”

Many Democrats who opposed the bill said the congressional vote placed lawmakers in the middle of issues best left to state courts and family members.

“Today, congressional leaders are trying to appoint Congress as a judge and jury,” said Rep. Jim Davis, D-Fla. “If we do not draw the line in the sand today, there is no limit to what democratic principles this Congress will ignore or what liberties they may trample on next.”

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. and others rejected the description of the brain-damaged woman as persisting in a “vegetative” state.

A truck with signs protesting the removal Terri Shiavo's feeding tube is driven in front of Florida state Capitol in Tallahassee. Congress on Sunday approved a measure that would move Schiavo's case out of state courts and into the federal judiciary system.

“She laughs, she cries and she smiles with those around her. She is aware of her surroundings and is responsive to them,” he said. “This is a woman who deserves a chance at life and not a death sentence of starvation and dehydration.”

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., rejected the notion that elected lawmakers could accurately diagnose her condition.

“The caption tonight ought to be: We’re not doctors, we just play them on C-SPAN,” he said.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said the federal district court in Florida, which is open 24 hours a day, had already been informed that a petition would be filed as soon as the president signs the measure — with the presumption a judge will order that the tube be replaced.

“Time is not on Terri Schiavo’s side,” DeLay said. “The few remaining objecting House Democrats have so far cost Mrs. Schiavo two meals already today.”

Even though the legislation paved an avenue for federal jurisdiction in the legal case, there was no way to determine in advance how or when a judge would rule — or even which judge would be assigned the case by lottery.

Lawmakers who left Washington on Friday for the two-week Easter recess had to make abrupt changes in plans, backtracking for a dramatic and politically contentious vote.

In a special session Sunday afternoon, Democrats refused to allow the bill to be passed without a roll call vote.

That meant a vote could not occur before 12:01 a.m. today — the start of a new legislative day. Still, the measure was handled on an expedited calendar that required a two-thirds majority to pass.

The House has 232 Republicans, 202 Democrats and one independent.

The legislation would give Schiavo’s parents the right to file suit in federal court over the withdrawal of food and medical treatment needed to sustain the life of their daughter.

It says the court, after determining the merits of the suit, “shall issue such declaratory and injunctive relief as may be necessary to protect the rights” of the woman. Injunctive relief in this case could mean the reinserting of feeding tubes.

“It gives Terri Schiavo another chance,” Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said after the late-afternoon voice vote in a near-empty Senate chamber. “It guarantees a process to help Terri, but does not guarantee a particular outcome.”

Frist also noted that the bill, responding to some Democratic objections, does not affect state assisted suicide laws or serve as a precedent for future legislation.

A Senate bill passed by the House is returned to the Senate enrollment clerk’s office where it is printed on parchment and, when speed is important, driven immediately to the White House by Senate personnel. There, the White House clerk takes custody of the legislation and prepares it for the president to sign into law.

The White House made arrangements for Bush to sign the measure at any hour, although without fanfare.

The Democratic whip, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said his office was telling members to vote their conscience on the issue and there was considerable Democratic support for the bill.

Schiavo has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years. Her feeding tubes were removed Friday afternoon at the request of her husband, who says that his wife expressed to him before she fell ill that she did not want to be kept alive under such circumstances.

House and Senate committees at the end of the week issued subpoenas seeking to force the continuation of treatment, but that move was rejected by a Florida court.

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