The Trump administration may, for the time being, continue not to fully fund the food stamp program until Congress appropriates new funds, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled late on Nov. 11.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as the food stamp program, provides financial assistance for food purchases to about 42 million people.

The court extended until 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 13 an administrative stay it granted on Nov. 7 that blocked lower court decisions that ordered the Trump administration to redirect about $4 billion in tariff revenue to SNAP on top of $4.6 billion it already used from a contingency fund. An administrative stay gives members of a court more time to consider an urgent matter.

The new unsigned order in Rollins v. Rhode Island Council of Churches did not provide reasons for the decision.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson indicated she would have denied the extension and the federal government’s emergency application. She did not explain her dissent.

Jackson on Nov. 7 had placed a temporary hold on the adverse lower court orders until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued a written explanation outlining why it denied the administration’s appeal of those rulings. That explanation was released on Nov. 10, prompting the administration to request that Jackson extend her stay.

Government lawyers said that the judiciary did not have the power to compel the administration to pay for SNAP, and that the funding lapse was poised to be resolved as Congress moves toward an agreement to end the government shutdown that began on Oct. 1.

“Congress appears to be on the brink of breaking the deadlock, though that outcome is unsure. The district court’s unlawful orders risk upsetting that compromise and throwing into doubt how innumerable critical federal programs will be funded—a point on the equities that escaped the court of appeals,” they wrote in a brief. “This Court should stay these wrongful edicts to let the political process that is rapidly playing out reach its conclusion.”

The Rhode Island State Council of Churches and other groups and municipalities that sued over the administration’s decision not to fund SNAP without new congressional appropriations said in a filing in response that the government should be forced to use the tariff revenue to fully fund SNAP for November.

“The equities in this case could hardly be clearer. People need food now, and the government’s speculative fear that Child Nutrition programs could run out of funding sometime next year if the government taps those funds for SNAP cannot overcome the immediate harm that millions of Americans are actually suffering today,” they said.

In a separate case, brought by states that help the Department of Agriculture administer SNAP, a different judge on Nov. 10 blocked the department’s Nov. 8 memorandum that ordered states that provided full November benefits to undo steps they had taken. During a hearing later in the day, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said she would release a written order outlining her decision.