The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday extended a ​pause on a judge's order that ‌required U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to fully fund food aid ‌for 42 million low-income Americans this month amid the federal government shutdown, even as lawmakers took steps toward ending the stalemate.

The court's action allows the ⁠administration for now ‌to continue withholding about $4 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known ‍as SNAP or food stamps.

Lawyers for the administration told the justices on Monday that an end to the government shutdown would ​eliminate its need to halt the judge's ‌order, so the court's extension of a pause issued last Friday by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson may prove short-lived.

Jackson, on Tuesday, wrote that she would have denied the administration's request ⁠to further halt the judge'​s order.

The extended pause is ​set to expire on Thursday.

The U.S. Senate on Monday approved compromise legislation that ‍would end the ⁠longest government shutdown in U.S. history, breaking a weeks-long stalemate that has ⁠disrupted food benefits for millions, left hundreds of thousands of ‌federal workers unpaid and snarled air traffic.

(With input from Reuters)