Supreme Court allows Trump admin to temporarily withhold some SNAP payments for November

Shortly after telling states that the food assistance program would be fully funded, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to step in.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday at least temporarily allowed the Trump administration to withhold about $4 billion in payments for the SNAP food benefits program that a federal judge had ordered.

The court via an order issued by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson provisionally blocked an order issued by Rhode Island-based U.S. District Judge John McConnell that required the payments to be made by Friday night.

The administration has said that because of the government shutdown, there is only enough money to pay partial benefits this month. It had previously agreed to pay about $5 billion from a SNAP contingency fund but objected to paying another $4 billion from a separate program, arguing McConnell had no authority to force it to.

Earlier on Friday, the Agriculture Department had indicated it would make the full payments, according to a memo obtained by NBC News. Patrick Penn, the deputy undersecretary of the Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, informed states that USDA “will complete the processes necessary” to fully issue SNAP benefits for the time being.

McConnell on Thursday afternoon ordered the administration to deliver full payments to states by Friday, chastising it for delays that he said have likely caused SNAP recipients to go hungry.