WASHINGTON – With Potential The end of the government shutdown is in sight.The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended a freeze on a federal judge's order that would require Trump administration fully fund the SNAP food program in November.
The decision means the government does not have to distribute about $4 billion in additional SNAP funding for now, as ordered by U.S. District Judge John McConnell of Rhode Island. The Supreme Court block will remain in place until midnight Thursday.
The case will likely become moot if the shutdown ends because bipartisan government reopening bill will fully fund the SNAP program through September of next year. The House of Representatives is expected to vote Wednesday on a measure passed by the Senate to end the record shutdown.
About 42 million people rely on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps.
“The only way to end this crisis—which the Executive Branch is adamant about—is to allow Congress to reopen the government,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the Trump administration's latest legal filing.
summary order noted that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson would have denied the government's request.
The court had temporarily suspend McConnell's decision Friday while he awaited a decision from the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. That court declined to intervene on Monday morning.
The Trump administration says the shutdown meant it was only able to spend $5 billion from the emergency fund to partially pay for November SNAP benefits. The program typically costs about $9 billion a month.
The government objected to McConnell's order, which would have required the remaining roughly $4 billion to be paid out of a separate fund designed to fund child nutrition programs, called Title 32.
The practical implications of Tuesday's Supreme Court decision means that SNAP will be about 65% funded until the government shutdown ends.
The Trump administration's failure to fund SNAP was challenged by a coalition including cities, churches and nonprofits that provide food assistance.
