The US Supreme Court has extended a temporary pause on a lower court ruling that would have required the Trump administration to fully restore food assistance for 42 million low-income Americans this month, as the federal government shutdown drags on.
The decision allows the administration to continue withholding about US$4 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps, while the shutdown remains unresolved.
Government lawyers told the justices that once the shutdown ends, the administration will no longer need to block the lower court’s order. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who issued the initial pause last Friday, said she would have denied the government’s request for an extension. The Supreme Court’s pause is now set to expire on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the US Senate passed compromise legislation on Monday aimed at ending the nation’s longest-ever government shutdown. The weeks-long impasse has disrupted food aid for millions of Americans, delayed paychecks for hundreds of thousands of federal workers, and caused widespread economic ripple effects, including air travel delays.
For the first time in the program’s six-decade history, SNAP benefits lapsed at the start of the month. Many recipients have since turned to food banks already struggling to meet demand, with some forced to skip medications or other necessities to manage household expenses.
