The fate of a brain-damaged Florida woman was back in the courts on Monday after President Bush signed emergency legislation aimed at prolonging the life of Terri Schiavo.

Bush signed the legislation at 1:11 a.m. after extraordinary intervention by lawmakers that drew the U.S. Congress back from Easter recess and into a bitter family dispute as it tried to circumvent years of state court rulings.

David Gibbs, a lawyer for Schiavo’s parents, filed a lawsuit and a request for an order to have her feeding tube reinserted with a federal court in Florida shortly after the law was signed.

The feeding tube was removed from the 41-year-old woman on Friday under a state court order.

The papers were filed at the U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida, where court officials had kept the courthouse open. There was no immediate word on when a judge would make a decision in the highly charged case.

An ambulance was standing by to take Schiavo from a hospice in Pinellas Park, Florida, in preparation for a judge’s order for feeding to resume.

Schiavo would be expected to live for a week to two weeks after feeding was halted and those fighting to prolong her life stressed there was little time to lose.

Schiavo has been fed through a stomach tube since a Heart attack starved her brain of oxygen in 1990, leaving her in what the courts declared was a persistent vegetative state.

Her husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, has long argued - and has been supported by the courts - that his wife would not have wanted to live in such a condition.

But her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, say she responds to them and would improve with treatment. They have fought to keep her alive over a bitter seven-year legal battle and in recent weeks lobbied lawmakers to intervene, drawing support from Christian conservatives.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the measure 203-58 shortly after midnight following three hours of debate. The U.S. Senate, with no objections, approved the measure by a voice vote with only a few senators on hand.

“We are very, very thankful to have crossed this bridge,” Suzanne Vitadamo, Terri Schiavo’s sister, said after the House vote. “We are very hopeful that the federal courts will follow the will of Congress and save my sister’s life.”

Bush cut short a Texas vacation and flew back to Washington to sign the bill immediately.

“I signed into law a bill that will allow federal courts to hear a claim by or on behalf of Terri Schiavo for violation of her rights relating to the withholding or withdrawal of food, fluids, or medical treatment necessary to sustain her life,” Bush said in a statement.

Michael Schiavo, who condemned the legislation as an intrusion into private family matters, denounced the intervention.

“It’s a sad day for Terri and it’s a sad day for everybody in America because the government is going to trample all over your personal and private matters,” he said on NBC.

“Twenty judges have heard this, the United States Supreme Court has heard this. There’s no doubts here and Mr. Bush should be ashamed of himself,” he added on ABC.

The measure gives the U.S. District Court in Tampa jurisdiction in the case that has been taken up by Republican congressional leaders and galvanized activists on both sides of the emotional end-of-life issue.

EMOTIONAL DEBATE

Several Democrats objected, calling the legislation a political exploitation of a tragic family matter that undermines Florida courts and states’ rights.

But House Republican leader Tom DeLay of Texas insisted it was not a political issue. “This is life and death, and this is a bipartisan attempt to save this life,” he said.

The tube feeding has twice been halted and resumed in the past amid legal wrangles. Until now, federal courts have turned the case back to state courts.

Schiavo’s father, Bob Schindler, told CNN he spoke with her about going out to breakfast after the vote.

“I got a big smile out of her face, so help me God,” he said.

House members who had scattered for a two-week recess were called back to Washington for the late-night session.

Despite the sudden notice, 261 of the House’s 435 members voted, and gave the measure well over the two-thirds majority required.

In the House debate, Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, the Judiciary Committee chairman, said Florida’s courts were “enforcing a merciless directive to deprive Terri Schiavo of her right to life.”

But Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said lawmakers were voting according to their ideological bias, not necessarily in Schiavo’s interest.

“I don’t know what her wishes were, but neither do any of you,” he said.