America's top court has issued an urgent ruling that permits for now the federal government to delay billions in funding for food benefits relied on by millions of low-income Americans.
Administration officials appealed to the Supreme Court after a federal judge ordered that the SNAP program, called food stamps, should be paid out in full to beneficiaries by Friday.
This assistance has been left in limbo by the continuing budget impasse, with the Trump administration arguing it could only afford to partially fund it.
The court's decision means $4bn can be held back for now until more court proceedings.
The Snap programme is used by tens of millions of U.S. citizens - approximately 12% - and costs almost $9bn a each month.
On Thursday, a federal magistrate, the presiding judge, accused the Trump administration of withholding food aid "for political reasons" and said that without the aid "millions of kids are immediately at risk of going hungry".
The judge mandated the administration to pay out the assistance completely.
This decision came after that ordered the government to use contingency funds to at least partly pay for the programme for November.
The legal saga was spurred after the US Department of Agriculture, which manages the Snap programme, stated benefits would be stopped in November due to the budget shortfall over the budget crisis.
Prior to the high court's action, the Agriculture Department said it was working to comply with the multiple rulings and was taking steps to distribute the complete amount.
High Court Judge Justice Jackson issued the order late Friday, known as an administrative stay, effectively freezing the previous decision for 48 hours while government lawyer's seek to overturn it.
The row over food aid funding has become one of the bitterest of what is now the longest government shutdown in American history.
Government workers have been without pay for over 30 days and flight operations has been thrown into chaos as Democratic and Republican lawmakers fail to agree a compromise to pass a budget.
Several states have used their own financial reserves to keep Snap payments going, which are worth around $6 to recipients via electronic benefit cards which can be redeemed in grocery stores.
However, certain states have said they are cannot cover the funding which has been lost from the federal government.
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