Congress’ “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which passed last summer could prove to be far more damaging to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in Illinois than most people know. A SNAP “death penalty” is built into the budget reconciliation law.

Before we go further, there’s a caveat: The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service has not yet released definitive guidance for how the federal government intends to enforce the law.

As I’ve told you before, Illinois’ SNAP “error rate” (providing too many benefits or not enough) was 11.6% last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The new law requires states with error rates above 10% to pay 15% of the SNAP benefit costs.

That would translate to a $705 million price tag for Illinois — which is obvious

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