With Congress on the brink of a deal to end the government shutdown, the Supreme Court has agreed to let the political process play out and keep in place a brief pause of a federal court judge’s ruling that ordered the Trump administration to fully fund SNAP benefits in November.
About 42 million Americans rely on food aid from SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
On Friday, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson had granted a stay on behalf of the Court, blocking the lower court’s order that the administration transfer some $4 billion from other food security programs to SNAP payments. That Supreme Court stay was set to expire late Tuesday night, but will now stay in place until 11:59 p.m. ET Thursday.
The administration noted in its Supreme Court filing Monday that Congress appeared to be close to reaching a deal, which would make the entire case moot. It urged the Court to keep its pause in place “to let the political process that is rapidly playing out reach its conclusion.”
Justice Jackson, who handles emergency orders from federal courts in the First Circuit, would have denied the request to extend her initial stay. No other justice noted a dissent to the full Court’s order Tuesday night.
The Trump administration warned states in late October that the food benefit payments would not go out for November because of the ongoing shutdown. A group of municipalities and nonprofit organizations sued, and a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the USDA to tap into a contingency fund to cover the benefits, which the Trump administration appealed.
A USDA official overseeing SNAP said in a court filing last week that benefits were expected to be reduced by 35% in November.
The House of Representatives could vote as early as Wednesday on a Senate-passed funding bill that would end the now 42-day shutdown — the longest in U.S. history. Reopening the government would restart funding for SNAP, but it’s not clear how quickly full payments would resume.
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