Government shutdown updates: Judge lays out path for SNAP benefits

A federal judge in Rhode Island is temporarily ordering the Trump administration to continue funding SNAP benefits.

"The court is orally at this time, ordering that USDA must distribute the contingency money timely, or as soon as possible, for the November 1 payments to be made," said U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr.

After an hourlong emergency hearing, the judge ruled that the suspension of SNAP funding is arbitrary and likely to cause irreparable harm, citing the "terror" felt by Americans who are scrambling to meet their basic nutritional needs.

"There is no doubt, and it is beyond argument that irreparable harm will begin to occur if it hasn't already occurred in the terror, it has caused some people about the availability of funding for food for their family," he said.

-ABC News' Peter Charalambous

A federal judge in Boston ruled that the Trump administration’s attempt to suspend SNAP funding is “unlawful” but declined to immediately order the program be funded.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani reserved judgement about whether to issue a temporary restraining order, instead asking the Trump administration to advise the court whether they would authorize reduced SNAP benefits for November. She ordered the Trump administration to answer her question about reduced SNAP funding by Monday.

“For the reasons stated below, Plaintiffs have standing to bring this action and are likely to succeed on their claim that Defendants’ suspension of SNAP benefits is unlawful,” she wrote.

“Where that suspension of benefits rested on an erroneous construction of the relevant statutory provisions, the court will allow Defendants to consider whether they will authorize at least reduced SNAP benefits for November, and report back to the court no later than Monday, November 3, 2025,” she added.

-ABC News' Peter Charalambous

The House will officially be out of session again next week amid the government shutdown -- scrapping votes for the sixth week in a row.

The lower chamber held its last vote on Sept. 19.

-ABC News' Lauren Peller

Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s position against eliminating the Senate filibuster has not changed, a spokesperson told ABC News Friday, after Trump on Thursday called on Republicans to go "nuclear" and eliminate the filibuster to pass the Republican funding bill and reopen the government.

“Leader Thune’s position on the importance of the legislative filibuster is unchanged,” spokesperson Ryan Wrasse said in a statement, after Thune ruled out the gambit earlier this month as a path to end the shutdown.

Thune has long stood firm in his position against abolishing the time-honored chamber procedure that requires consensus from 60 of the Senate’s 100 members to advance most legislation -- as recently as Oct. 10, saying that the legislative tactic has long "protected" the upper chamber from operating as a majority party monopoly.

-ABC News' Isabella Murray, Lauren Peller and John Parkinson