Trump’s Budget Bill Slashes Food Assistance for 360,000+ Low-Income Illinoisans
CHICAGO - Following the signing of Trump and Republicans’ ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ Illinois is raising awareness about the devastating impacts on our working families. This includes draconian cuts and alterations to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which threatens food benefits for an estimated 360,000 Illinoisans, jeopardizes jobs, grocery stores, and harms local economies.
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"SNAP has been a crucial federal resource for families trying to put food on the table for more than 60 years, but Trump and Republicans would rather children go hungry so their friends can receive tax cuts,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Here in Illinois, we have been working to combat food insecurity for years, and while no state can backfill these costs, the State of Illinois will continue to fight against these harmful impacts and stand up for working families.”
SNAP has been a permanent, 100% federally-funded food benefit for more than 60 years. The bill threatens SNAP benefits for Illinoisans in three fundamental ways: ?
- Shifts cost on food benefits to states for the first time since the program’s inception and further threatens benefits if states can’t meet these new funding expectations;
- Strips eligibility from our most vulnerable populations leaving hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans hungry and putting thousands of jobs at risk; and
- Creates new, costly bureaucratic hurdles the state must implement in order to make the cuts.
These changes from the federal government will harm hundreds of thousands of working families across Illinois and drastically impact how SNAP functions across the state, leaving veterans, children, unhoused populations, and older adults vulnerable. In FY25, $4.7 billion in SNAP benefits were issued to Illinoisans, supporting over one million households (1.8 million individuals total).
Data from the Food Research and Action Center on SNAP issuance in Illinois indicates that:
- 44,217 veterans are participating in SNAP
- 37% SNAP households have older adults
- 45% SNAP households have children
- 44% SNAP households have a person with a disability
Trump’s spending bill endangers families that rely on SNAP, stripping their eligibility for assistance and making it harder to put food on the table. The State of Illinois also expects substantial economic harm to reverberate from these cuts, as SNAP supports more than 18,000 jobs in Illinois, across both the grocery and other supporting industries, including agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, and municipal services.
An overview of the expected impacts in Illinois can be found below.
- Stripping Benefits from Vulnerable Illinoisans: This bill changes eligibility requirements, putting an estimated 360,000 Illinoisans at risk of losing SNAP eligibility, removing work requirement exemptions for 23,000 unhoused, veterans, or youth aged out of foster care in Illinois, and costing Illinois tens of millions to support the additional administrative burden of policy implementation.
- Damaging Local Economies: SNAP supports more than 18,000 jobs in Illinois, across both the grocery and other supporting industries, including agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, and municipal services. According to the National Grocer’s Association, SNAP supports nearly $1 billion in Illinois wages. The extreme cuts will have far reaching consequences for grocery stores and jobs as fewer SNAP dollars circulate in local economies.
- Destabilizing the Current Funding Framework: This bill would implement a state cost share of food benefits (which have historically been 100% federally funded). Calculated based on the State’s Payment Error Rate (PER), Illinois’ required contribution to SNAP will go from $0 (currently) to $705 million annually.
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