Democrats are railing against the Trump administration after its temporary Supreme Court win paused an order that would’ve required providing full funding of SNAP benefits amid the government shutdown.
The temporary victory came late Friday night, as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson granted the administration’s request to pause a lower court order that would have required it access a separate nutrition account at the Department of Agriculture to provide full SNAP benefits for millions of Americans — leaving the fate of SNAP funding hanging in the balance for now as the government shutdown careens into its sixth week.
“The Trump administration is begging the Supreme Court to block an order requiring them to immediately release SNAP benefits,” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on X on Friday. “Meanwhile. Millions of hungry Americans are at risk of starving. These extremists are sick people.”
Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) also decried the pause, suggesting that Democrats would push back on the added delay to funding the program.
“Let’s be very clear,” Clark wrote on X, “Trump is making a choice not to feed hungry Americans. Democrats will be fighting back.”
“The Trump administration will go to any length — including appeal to the highest court in the land — if it means they can cut off food for hungry people,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on X on Friday. “What is wrong with them?”
The White House referred a request for comment to the Office of Management and Budget. OMB did not immediately respond.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — which serves more than 40 million Americans — ran out of funds Nov. 1 due to the government shutdown. The Trump administration has continued to lock horns with Democratic governors and state leaders in a flurry of litigation seeking to resume funding SNAP.
The Department of Agriculture was slated to send out monthly allotments for November that are 65 percent of the typical maximum allotments, according to a memo the USDA sent to state agencies Wednesday. As of Saturday, it is unclear whether those allotments have been carried out as prescribed in the memo.
But Democratic state leaders have continued to urge the administration to tap into a separate Agriculture Department account, called Section 32, to renew funding to the program.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced Friday that SNAP recipients in the Bay State could begin receiving their full benefits as early as Saturday. On Saturday morning, she said that the planned payments for families who went without earlier benefits were successfully sent out but that officials are reviewing what the latest pause means for recipients expecting benefits next week.
“President Trump’s cruelty knows no bounds,” she wrote on X.
Healey called on the president to “stop playing politics with people’s lives and pay full SNAP benefits for everyone.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul — who also said she directed state agencies to fully fund SNAP benefits for November — took to X on Friday, saying the administration “fought for” the decision to delay the payments.
“He doesn’t care if millions of Americans go hungry,” she said.
The Trump administration has said it doesn’t have the funds needed to restore full SNAP payments amid the ongoing shutdown. Officials argue that directing additional funds toward SNAP would pull money away from funding child nutrition programs.
“Our attorneys will not stop fighting, day and night, to defend and advance President Trump’s agenda,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X after the temporary Supreme Court win.
Votes to reopen the government have failed in the Senate 14 times, with the most recent failing 54-44, shy of the 60 votes needed to pass the House-approved continuing resolution to reopen the government. No new Democrats have crossed the aisle to support the motion as they continue to hold out for an extension to health care subsidies.
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