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America's top court has issued an emergency order that temporarily allows the federal government to delay billions in funding for food benefits used by millions of low-income Americans.

The White House appealed to the Supreme Court after a federal judge ruled that the SNAP program, called food aid, should be distributed in full to recipients by Friday.

The programme has been caught in uncertainty by the continuing budget impasse, with the government arguing it could only pay for part of it.

The court's decision means $4bn can be held back for now pending further legal hearings.

Programme Impact

The Snap programme is issued by tens of millions of U.S. citizens - around one in eight - and costs almost £6.9bn a month.

Earlier this week, a Rhode Island judge, John McConnell, accused the Trump administration of blocking nutrition funds "due to political motives" and said that without the aid "16 million children are in danger of facing hunger".

He ordered the administration to pay out the assistance completely.

Court Proceedings

This decision came after that required the administration to dip into contingency funds to at least partly pay for the programme for last month.

This court battle was triggered after the USDA, which manages the Snap programme, stated payments would be stopped in the fall due to the lack of funding over the budget crisis.

Before the Supreme Court stepped in, the USDA said it was working to comply with the various court orders and was taking steps to doll out the complete amount.

Supreme Court Action

High Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson granted the order on Friday evening, known as an administrative stay, effectively freezing the previous decision for 48 hours while government lawyer's pursue an appeal.

The row over nutrition program money has become among the most contentious of what is now the longest government shutdown in American history.

Wider Effects

Government workers have been without pay for more than a month and air travel has been thrown into chaos as Democratic and Republican lawmakers cannot reach a compromise to pass a budget.

Some states have drawn on their own financial reserves to keep food benefits going, which are worth around six dollars to users via pre-loaded debit cards which can be redeemed in food markets.

However, certain states have said they are unable to replace the funding which has been lost from the federal government.