Oliver Contreras / AFP
The Supreme Court has extended an order that blocks the full payment of SNAP benefits as the government shutdown approaches a potential end.
The court extended the order until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday.
The Senate on Sunday approved a bill to end the government shutdown. The bill now heads to the House of Representatives, where it could be voted on as early as Wednesday. If approved, it would then be sent to President Donald Trump’s desk for signing.
The order the court extended was previously issued on Friday. It temporarily blocked a lower court’s order that would have required the US Department of Agriculture to pay full SNAP benefits this month.
The ruling, issued late Friday night by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who oversees the First Circuit, paused two previous orders from a federal judge in Rhode Island requiring the USDA to pay full November SNAP benefits during the government shutdown.
The Trump administration had asked the US Appeals Court to halt the Rhode Island judge’s order, but the court declined to take immediate action. The Supreme Court routinely issues temporary stays to maintain the status quo in similar circumstances while proceedings are ongoing.
“The Trump-Vance administration continues to attempt — over and over — to take food out of the mouths of families, seniors, workers, and children. And every time they tried, the courts told them what the law already makes clear: they cannot,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of the left-leaning policy group Democracy Forward. The organization is a plaintiff in the Rhode Island case.
The Supreme Court’s order followed a November 6 ruling from Rhode Island federal judge John McConnell Jr., in which he called on the Trump administration to provide food stamps. He ordered that payments be made to states by Friday, November 7.
The Agriculture Department has indicated it will follow the order and begin releasing SNAP funds to states.
Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X Friday that the Thursday ruling, “purports to force the government to divert some $5 billion from the school lunch program to SNAP by the end of today” by paying out food stamp benefits. The Justice Department has requested a stay of McConnell’s order, meaning the case could proceed to an appellate court, and the case over SNAP funding will continue.
“We ask the First Circuit to get courts out of the business of deciding how to triage scarce funds during a shutdown,” she wrote. “When lawless district courts step in to try to manage the federal fisc, it upends the political process.”
SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, provides monthly food benefits to about 42 million low-income Americans.
SNAP payments proceeded despite Trump threat
In a November 5 court filing in Rhode Island, the USDA said it had complied with an earlier court order, issued on October 31, to “disburse the funds in its contingency fund” to support SNAP benefits.
The agency said that although the contingency fund “has never before been used to fund benefits in a lapse due to congressional opposition to continuing appropriations,” it “took the steps necessary to use the fund” to help cover November SNAP benefits — marking the first time it’s been tapped during a funding lapse. The USDA added that the funds are generally “used in the event of a disaster, such as a hurricane, to provide critical relief.”
However, since the funds weren’t enough to cover full payments, the USDA said it told states to cut November benefits by half.
On Tuesday, the agency issued guidance to states regarding the reduced payment amounts for November. For a single person living in the 48 continental states and in D.C., their monthly amount will be reduced to a maximum of $149.
In the filing, the USDA also said it decided against diverting billions from the Child Nutrition Programs to fund SNAP. “The result would be a substantial shortfall in funding school meals, among other things, that would likely not be filled by any future appropriation,” it said.
This court filing followed Trump’s Truth Social post on Tuesday, in which he threatened to withhold SNAP benefits until the government reopened.
“SNAP BENEFITS, which increased by Billions and Billions of Dollars (MANY FOLD!) during Crooked Joe Biden’s disastrous term in office. (Due to the fact that they were haphazardly ‘handed’ to anyone for the asking, as opposed to just those in need, which is the purpose of SNAP!), will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before! ” the president wrote in a Truth Social post.
Federal judges in Rhode Island and Massachusetts previously ordered the Trump administration to continue funding SNAP during the government shutdown.
Representatives for USDA and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.
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