The Highest Court Decides Complete Snap Food Benefits Can Be Paused for Now.
America's top court has granted an urgent ruling that permits for now the Trump administration to withhold billions in funding for nutrition assistance used by countless needy U.S. residents.
Administration officials appealed to the country's highest court after a lower court ordered that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food aid, should be distributed in full to beneficiaries by Friday.
The programme has been left in limbo by the continuing budget impasse, with the government arguing it could only pay for part of it.
The court's decision means $4bn can be temporarily withheld pending further legal hearings.
SNAP's Reach
The Snap programme is issued by tens of millions of U.S. citizens - around one in eight - and costs almost $9bn a month.
On Thursday, a federal magistrate, the presiding judge, alleged the government of withholding food aid "due to political motives" and said that without the assistance "16 million children are in danger of facing hunger".
He ordered the government to pay out the programme in full.
Legal Background
This decision came after that required the government to use contingency funds to at least partly pay for the assistance for November.
The legal saga was triggered after the USDA, which oversees the food stamp program, announced benefits would be halted in the fall due to the budget shortfall over the shutdown.
Prior to the high court's action, the Agriculture Department said it was working to comply with the multiple rulings and was making efforts to doll out the full funds.
High Court's Move
High Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson granted the stay on Friday evening, called an administrative stay, pausing the lower court's ruling for 48 hours while federal attorneys seek to overturn it.
This dispute over food aid funding has become one of the bitterest of what is now the lengthiest budget standoff in US history.
Wider Effects
Government workers have been unpaid for over 30 days and flight operations has been thrown into chaos as Democratic and Republican lawmakers fail to agree a compromise to fund the government.
Some states have drawn on their own budget savings to keep food benefits flowing, which are valued at around $6 to recipients via electronic benefit cards which can be used in grocery stores.
However, certain states have said they are unable to replace the funding which has been cut by the U.S. treasury.
