From staff and wire reports

                  WASHINGTON -- As the Cuban grandmothers of 6-year-old Elian
                  Gonzalez prepare to end their visit to the United States, focus on the
                  international custody battle shifts to Washington, where Congress is poised
                  to enter the fray.

                  The House and Senate start a new session Monday, and Sen. Connie
                  Mack, R-Florida, is expected to introduce a bill that would grant Elian
                  instant U.S. citizenship. Adoption of such a bill perhaps would shoot down a
                  U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service ruling that would force the
                  boy's return to Cuba.

                  "This is a little boy whose life is going to be affected by a decision," said
                  Mack. "I want the decision to be made on the basis of his best interest, not
                  some INS immigration law, and it's that simple for me."

                  In the U.S. House, Majority Whip Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, Rep.
                  Bill McCollum, R-Florida, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida and Rep.
                  Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Florida, are co-sponsoring a bill similar to Mack's
                  Senate legislation.

                  Elian has been staying with his great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, in Miami
                  since November, when he was rescued clinging to an inner tube off the
                  Florida coast. He was one of three survivors of an immigration attempt
                  from Cuba that left his mother, stepfather and nine other people dead.

                  Elian's father and the Cuban government have been demanding the boy's return.

                  'Private bill' could nix INS ruling

                  Mack's planned legislation, called a "private bill," could make the suit that
                  Elian's great-uncle has filed to block the INS ruling unnecessary.

                  "If Congress were to pass a private bill making the boy a citizen," said
                  former INS General Counsel Paul Virtue, "it would really take the
                  immigration issue away, and it would leave custody to the determination of
                  the state court."

                  A Florida family court has already given Elian's great-uncle temporary
                  custody of the boy pending a full hearing in March.

                  Elian's Cuban grandmothers, Raquel Rodriguez and Mariela Quintana, were
                  in New York on Sunday, wrapping up a mission to persuade U.S. officials
                  to return the boy to his homeland.

                  Boy's grandmothers speak out

                  In an interview published in Sunday's New York Times, Quintana spoke of
                  Elian's great-uncle and other relatives with whom the boy is staying. "I don't
                  know why they want the child to stay here after the trauma he's been
                  through," she said. "They are not close relatives."

                  Earlier, the grandmothers blew kisses and wiped away tears as they stood
                  before about 2,000 worshipers at a Manhattan church.

                  Although the two women did not address the interdenominational
                  congregation, at the Riverside Church, worshipers gave them a standing
                  ovation.

                  "Raquel and Mariela are grateful for your love," said the Rev. Bob Edgar, a
                  former Democratic congressman and head of the National Council of
                  Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., which sponsored the grandmothers' trip
                  from Havana.

                  Randy Naylor, a spokesman for the church group, said the two women
                  would leave New York on Monday. They're expected to return home to
                  Cuba. They first arrived in New York on Friday and met Saturday with U.S.
                  Attorney General Janet Reno and INS Commissioner Doris Meissner in
                  Washington, D.C.

                  In a statement following the meeting, Reno said the grandmothers "made a
                  very compassionate and heartfelt plea" for Elian's return to Cuba. But Reno
                  said the matter now is in federal court.

                  Reno's statement also reiterated the INS position that Elian should be with
                  his father.

                  "We maintain that the law recognizes the unique relationship between parent
                  and child and that family reunification has long been a cornerstone of U.S.
                  immigration law as well as Immigration and Naturalization Service practice,"
                  the statement said.

                  Legal standoff has Havana frustrated

                  In Havana, the Cuban government expressed exasperation with the
                  long-running legal standoff.

                  "It's high time for the U.S. authorities to simply enforce the law," Cuban
                  National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon told CNN following the Reno
                  meeting. "It's as simple as that."

                  Alarcon called the boy's stay of nearly two months with his Miami relatives
                  "the first kidnapping in the open."

                  Elian's Miami relatives have invited the grandmothers to visit their grandson
                  in Florida, but the grandmothers have declined, citing fears of legal
                  entanglements and possible protests by the area's large anti-Castro
                  community.

                 Congressman opposes Elian legislation

                  Sponsors of the bills to grant Elian citizenship say they have bipartisan
                  support for their legislation, but there are opponents.

                  "It is unheard of," said Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York. "Because we
                  have some Cuban-American congressmen from Miami who are up for
                  re-election, they should determine now that this 6-year-old kid should be an
                  American?

                  Rangel predicted that if a bill for Elian does pass, President Bill Clinton will
                  not sign it.

                  In the 1950s and 1960s, Congress used private bills to grant citizenship to
                  hundreds of people, including former British Prime Minister Winston
                  Churchill. But the number has declined in recent years.

                  "I think this is a fundamental issue about freedom," said Mack, "and what
                  Winston Churchill and Elian have in common is their desire for freedom."

                    Correspondent Frank Buckley, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this
                                             report.