Politics
One Big Beautiful Bill Requires States to Front SNAP Costs. Illinois Could Pay Tens of Millions Annually
Illinois could soon have to spend tens of millions of dollars from its budget to continue receiving federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
The change comes as part of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which sought to shift SNAP costs onto states to combat alleged fraud and waste.
“H.R. 1 added new guardrails for states’ payment error rates, implementing real financial consequences for states that mismanage taxpayer dollars,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a news release.
But local organizations combating food insecurity worry that the cost shifting could reduce SNAP benefits for Americans who need them. According to the Illinois Department of Human Services, more than 12 million monthly SNAP payments are made to more than 1.9 million people in Illinois.
Nolan Downey is the senior policy director at the Greater Chicago Food Depository. He said states are staring down the barrel of losing SNAP entirely if they cannot front extra costs.
“SNAP has always been 100% federally funded,” Downey said. “Now states across the country are beginning to have to grapple with what could be hundreds of millions, even billions, in some states. If they don’t pay those bills, they will lose the SNAP program. So that is what we’re facing in Illinois — the total loss of the program.”
How Does the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Shift SNAP Costs to States?
The bill included a provision that shifts SNAP costs based on a state’s payment error rate — a metric that the USDA says measures “how accurately states determine who is eligible for SNAP and how much they should receive.”
In fiscal year 2025, Illinois had a 13.33% SNAP overpayment error rate and a 1.33% underpayment error rate, combining for a total rate of 14.67%.
Federal auditors estimated that Illinois overpaid SNAP benefits by about 13 cents for every dollar that should have been issued, while eligible households received about 1.3 cents less than they should have for every dollar in benefits they were entitled to receive.
But Downey said any number of innocent factors could contribute to a state’s error rate.
“Somebody picks up an extra shift at work and doesn’t report the additional income,” Downey said. “Somebody reports their rent and their utilities together instead of separately, like they’re supposed to. There’s a lot of things that folks could do that are overwhelmingly innocent mistakes that nonetheless could create these errors. I think we need to push back forcefully on the federal narrative that these are a result of fraud.”
The bill requires states with payment error rates above 6% to begin covering up to 15% of their SNAP benefit costs starting in October 2027. A special exception was carved out for states above a 13.33% error rate, meaning Illinois will not begin fronting SNAP costs until October 2028.
IDHS, which administers SNAP at the state level, said Illinois taxpayers could be looking at up to $80 million annually to continue receiving SNAP funding.
“The penalty scheme is unprecedented,” a statement from IDHS reads. “PER (payment error rate) has never before – in over 50 years of SNAP history - been used to shift costs to states. SNAP benefits have been 100% federally funded since the program’s inception. PER is now being used to squeeze billions of dollars in costs from state taxpayers.”
Navigating SNAP Under the Trump Administration
Cost shifting is the latest in a string of changes made to SNAP by the Trump administration. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act also reduced funding for SNAP by around $186 billion over the next 10 years and introduced more stringent work requirements.
Natalie Morehead, a single mother of three who lives in Englewood, said that without SNAP, she and her children would likely go hungry. She added that navigating the program under the Trump administration has become nearly impossible.
“One of my children is disabled and trying to maintain a schedule where I can provide money to pay my bills and be there for my children with the new requirements — it’s making it almost impossible,” Morehead said. “It’s forcing parents like myself and other families to make these hard decisions on ‘Are we gonna work or are we gonna lose our benefits?’”
Morehead was forced to go without SNAP benefits from November 2025 through March 2026 after the federal government shutdown temporarily halted the distribution of SNAP funding. She said being reduced to a number or an “error rate” has been disheartening.
“It definitely takes away from us as people who receive these benefits,” Morehead said. “Hearing that we’re reduced to a number or we’re categorized by mistakes that the system has made. It makes me feel disheartened and very discomforted.”
Morehead has also been impacted by other provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. She said her hours at a private medical practice were recently reduced because Medicaid cuts included in the law have left fewer patients able to afford treatment.
