WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US Supreme Court said Friday that the Trump administration does not have to immediately pay SNAP food benefits defunded during the government shutdown, a temporary order that leaves millions in limbo.

A lower court this week ruled that President Donald Trump’s government must fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for November by the end of the day Friday.

It ordered the administration to use contingency funds to make a multi-billion-dollar payment to states so they could distribute food stamps to around 42-million Americans who rely on SNAP to afford groceries.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued the so-called administrative stay that pauses the process and gives the court system additional time to consider the administration’s request.

Earlier Friday, the Department of Justice (DoJ) appealed to the court saying only Congress had the power to resolve the crisis.

“The core power of Congress is that of the purse, while the Executive is tasked with allocating limited resources across competing priorities,” the DoJ wrote. 

But a lower court “took the current shutdown as effective license to declare a federal bankruptcy and appoint itself the trustee, charged with picking winners and losers among those seeking some part of the limited pool of remaining federal funds.”

US government agencies have been grinding to a halt since Congress failed to approve funding past 30 September and the pain has been mounting as welfare programs hang in the balance.

The Supreme Court ruling comes even as the federal government has made efforts to dole out the necessary payments to states.