The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended an order to block full SNAP payments amid signs that the government shutdown could soon end and food assistance payments have resumed.
The chaotic situation keeps the order in place for at least a few more days. People in some states who depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to support their families received their full monthly rations, while others received nothing.
The order expires just before midnight on Thursday.
The Senate approved a bill to end the shutdown, and the House of Representatives could vote on it as early as Wednesday. A government reopening would restart the program that helps 42 million Americans buy groceries, but it’s unclear how quickly full payments would resume.
The justices chose the path of least resistance, expecting the federal government shutdown to end soon, while avoiding any substantive legal ruling on whether lower court orders that full payments flow during the shutdown were correct.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only one of the nine justices to say she would immediately revive the lower court’s orders, but did not otherwise explain her vote. Jackson signed the original order temporarily freezing payments.
Beneficiaries in some states received their full monthly allotments, while in others they received nothing. Some states have issued partial payments.
How quickly SNAP benefits could reach recipients if the government reopens varies by state. But states and advocates say it’s easier to quickly make full payments than partial ones.
Carolyn Vega, a policy analyst with the advocacy group Share Our Strength, also said there may be some technical issues for states that have issued partial benefits to send the remaining amount.
Urgent need for recipient
In Pennsylvania, some people were paid their full November benefits on Friday. But Jim Malliard, 41, of Franklin, said he had received nothing by Monday.
Malliard is a full-time caregiver for his wife, who is blind and has suffered several strokes this year, and his teenage daughter, who suffered serious health complications after surgery last year.
That stress was only compounded by a break in the $350 monthly SNAP payment he previously received for himself, his wife and daughter. He said he has $10 in his account and is relying on what’s left in the pantry — mostly rice and ramen.
“It was kind of very late at night, making sure I had everything down to make sure I was right,” Malliard said. “To say that anxiety has been my problem for the past two weeks is an understatement.
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The political wrangling in Washington shocked many Americans and some were forced to help.
“I think I’ve spent money on dumber things than trying to feed other people during a man-made famine,” said Ashley Oxenford, a teacher who this week set up a “little food pantry” in her backyard for vulnerable neighbors in Carthage, New York.
SNAP has been at the center of an intense court battle.
The Trump administration decided to cut SNAP funding after October due to the shutdown. The decision sparked lawsuits and a series of swift and conflicting court rulings that deal with government power — and affect food access for about 1 in 8 Americans.
The administration agreed to two rulings Oct. 31 by judges that said the government must provide at least partial funding for SNAP. Ultimately, he said, beneficiaries will receive up to 65% of their regular benefits. But it balked last week when one of the judges said it had to fully fund the program by November, even if it meant digging into funds the government said needed to be preserved for emergencies elsewhere.
The US Supreme Court agreed to stay that order.
An appeals court said Monday that full funding should be restored, and that request was set to begin Tuesday night before the Supreme Court extended an order blocking full SNAP payments.
Congress is talking about reopening the government
The U.S. Senate on Monday approved a bill to reopen the federal government with a plan that would include replenishing SNAP funding. House Speaker Mike Johnson told House members to return to Washington to consider the deal a small group of Senate Democrats struck with Republicans.
President Donald Trump has not said whether he would sign it if it made it to his desk, but he told reporters at the White House on Sunday that “it looks like we’re nearing the end of the shutdown.”
Still, the Trump administration said in a Supreme Court filing Monday that it shouldn’t be up to the courts.
“The answer to this crisis is not for federal courts to redistribute resources without statutory authority,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in the paper. “The only way to end this crisis — which the executive branch is adamant about ending — is for Congress to reopen the government.”
After Tuesday’s ruling, Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on social media: “Thank you to the court for allowing Congress to continue to make rapid progress.”
A coalition of cities and nonprofit groups that challenged the SNAP pause said in a court filing Tuesday that the Department of Agriculture, which administers SNAP, is to blame for the confusion.
“The chaos was sown by USDA’s delay and intransigence,” they said, “not by the district court’s efforts to mitigate this chaos and the harm it has caused to families in need of food.”
