US President Donald Trump (Photo: AFP/ VNA)

The House of Representatives and Senate, with little debate and with only hours to go before government funding expired, gave congressional leaders more time to try to craft a bipartisan COVID-19 aid bill that would ride along with the massive spending legislation.

Trump signed the bill into law Friday night, the White House said, leaving lawmakers to try to beat a new Sunday midnight deadline, which comes almost exactly two years after an unresolved spending fight triggered a 35-day government shutdown, the longest on record.