Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton. The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to block full snap food benefits this month. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports it's the latest in a confusing legal battle that leaves millions of snap recipients in limbo.
Chapter 2: What recent legal battles are affecting SNAP benefits?
An appeals court late Sunday repeated what two federal judges had already said. The Trump administration must pay the full amount of food aid that SNAP enrollees are entitled to.
In its ruling, the court said the harm in limiting those payments would be immense, and it said the administration had, quote, sat on its hands for nearly a month, refusing to prepare for a funding shortfall it knew was coming. The Agriculture Department argues that tapping a larger pot of money to make full payments would hurt other nutrition programs.
The government's latest appeal to the Supreme Court comes despite moves to end the federal shutdown, which would render the SNAP standoff moot. Jennifer Ludden, NPR News, Washington.
Meanwhile, the Senate is edging closer to a deal to end the government shutdown after a handful of Democrats negotiated with Republican leaders to fund the government through the end of January and reverse firings of federal workers. President Trump has largely been on the sidelines of the legislative negotiations. but today said he's supportive of the compromise.
It's a deal I heard about that's certainly, you know, they want to change the deal a little bit, but I would say so. I think based on everything I'm hearing, they haven't changed anything. And we have support from enough Democrats and we're going to be opening up our country. It's too bad it was closed, but we'll be opening up our country very quickly.
The Senate could vote on the bill as soon as tonight and then the House would weigh in. Democrats who negotiated the deal are being criticized by some colleagues for not winning health care concessions from Republicans. President Trump issued a pardon of his allies related to the 2020 presidential election.
The pardon names numerous Trump campaign attorneys and others who tried to create alternate electoral slates. NPR's Miles Parks reports. The document pardons all those associated with a plot to make false electoral slates that could have potentially interfered with the presidential certification on January 6th, 2021.
It names Trump campaign attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Kenneth Chesbrough, Mark Meadows and John Eastman, as well as dozens of other people who met often in secret to sign documents claiming they were legitimate electors in states actually won by Joe Biden. The pardons are essentially symbolic, as none of the people pardoned have been charged with federal crimes.
Some are charged in their individual states, but the pardon has no impact on those cases. Miles Parks, NPR News, Washington. The Supreme Court has rejected a call to overturn its decision that legalized same-sex marriage. Justices denied an appeal from a former Kentucky County clerk, Kim Davis, who refused to issue marriage licenses after the court's 2015 ruling.
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