Supreme Court extends pause on order requiring Trump administration to fully fund SNAP food aid for 42 million low-income Americans during shutdown.
WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court has extended a pause on a judge’s order requiring President Donald Trump’s administration to fully fund food aid for 42 million low-income Americans.
The court’s action allows the administration to continue withholding approximately RM16.7 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the federal government shutdown.
Administration lawyers told justices that ending the government shutdown would eliminate the need to halt the judge’s order.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that she would have denied the administration’s request to further pause the order.
The extended pause is scheduled to expire on Thursday.
The US Senate approved compromise legislation on Monday to end the longest government shutdown in American history.
The weeks-long stalemate has disrupted food benefits for millions and left hundreds of thousands of federal workers unpaid.
SNAP benefits lapsed at the start of the month for the first time in the program’s 60-year history.
Recipients have turned to already strained food pantries and made sacrifices like forgoing medications to stretch tight budgets. – Reuters
