On Thursday, Vice President Vance expressed strong opposition to a federal court’s decision mandating the Trump administration to issue full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments for November. Vance contended that it’s inappropriate for the judiciary to dictate presidential decisions on financial allocations during a governmental shutdown.

“This ruling is nonsensical, as it involves a federal judge imposing directives on us amidst a Democrat-induced government shutdown,” Vance stated during a discussion with Central Asian dignitaries at the White House.

Vance further commented, “Our primary goal is to have the Democrats reopen the government. Once that’s achieved, we can finance SNAP and pursue numerous beneficial initiatives for the American populace. However, during a shutdown, it’s unreasonable for a court to dictate the president’s crisis management strategies.”

Earlier on Thursday, U.S. District Judge John McConnell dismissed the administration’s proposal to issue partial payments without accessing additional funds, ruling that it did not adhere to his prior directive.

The Justice Department announced plans to appeal the decision, casting uncertainty over SNAP benefits for the millions of Americans dependent on the program.

The Trump administration had intended to fully cut off SNAP payments for roughly 42 million Americans starting this month because of the government shutdown, which this week set a record for longest in history. That led to two lawsuits that assert the benefits must keep flowing.

Last week, McConnell ruled the administration, at minimum, was required to deplete a roughly $5 billion SNAP contingency fund. But it was not enough to fully fund November benefits, which are expected to cost upward of $9 billion. 

The Trump administration has sought to shift around money to cover things like pay for members of the military and a nutritional program for women and infants. But it has indicated it will not be able to provide funding for SNAP, and the Department of Transportation has said it will reduce the number of flights at certain airports in light of air traffic controller shortages during the shutdown.

Vance said the White House would look to fund certain government operations amid the strain of the shutdown, but would do so “according to what we think we have to do to comply with the law, of course, but also to actually make the government work for people.”