Supreme Court Rules Full Snap Food Benefits Can Be Put on Hold.

The US Supreme Court has granted an urgent ruling that temporarily allows the federal government to delay billions in funding for food benefits relied on by countless needy U.S. residents.

Administration officials sought relief from the Supreme Court after a federal judge ordered that the SNAP program, called food stamps, should be distributed completely to beneficiaries by Friday.

This assistance has been caught in uncertainty by the continuing budget impasse, with the government claiming it could only pay for part of it.

The court's decision means $4bn can be temporarily withheld pending further legal hearings.

Programme Impact

The Snap programme is issued by 42 million Americans - around one in eight - and requires almost $9bn a each month.

Earlier this week, a federal magistrate, the presiding judge, alleged the government of blocking nutrition funds "due to political motives" and said that without the assistance "millions of kids are immediately at risk of going hungry".

He ordered the government to fund the assistance completely.

Legal Background

The Thursday ruling followed another that ordered the administration to use contingency funds to at least partly pay for the assistance for November.

The legal saga was triggered after the US Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Snap programme, announced benefits would be halted in November due to the lack of funding over the shutdown.

Before the Supreme Court stepped in, the Agriculture Department said it was working to comply with the multiple rulings and was taking steps to doll out the full funds.

Supreme Court Action

High Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson issued the stay on Friday evening, called an temporary halt, effectively freezing the previous decision for two days while government lawyer's pursue an appeal.

This dispute over nutrition program money has become one of the bitterest of what is now the longest government shutdown in US history.

Broader Impact

Federal employees have been without pay for over 30 days and flight operations has been disrupted as Democratic and Republican lawmakers cannot reach a compromise to pass a budget.

Some states have drawn on their own budget savings to keep Snap payments going, which are valued at around $6 to users via pre-loaded debit cards which can be used in food markets.

But some states have said they are unable to replace the funding which has been lost from the U.S. treasury.