U.S. Rep. Sean Casten, D-Downers Grove, slammed the Trump administration’s recently-passed federal “Big Beautiful Bill Act” Thursday during an event in Geneva. In particular, Casten criticized the changes it includes for SNAP, the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food assistance to low-income individuals across the country.

“This bill is evil in the Biblical sense of that word,” Casten said.

Casten, U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, Northern Illinois Food Bank representatives, food pantry leaders and two individuals who receive food from pantries came spoke about cuts and their possible effects at the Northern Illinois Food Bank in Geneva.

The elected officials decried the bill and its effect on Illinois, while food bank and food pantry leaders shared concern about meeting higher demand for food, particularly as their facilities also face federal funding cuts.

The modifications to the SNAP program come as part of the “Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which was passed by Congress and officially signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4. It includes $4.5 trillion in tax breaks that were enacted in 2017 during Trump’s first term that would have expired if Congress failed to act, as well as new ones, the Associated Press reported.

The law also changes existing programs, like SNAP. According to the AP, participants in the program already had to work until they were 55 to qualify. The new law mandates participants work until 65, with some exceptions — like parents who care for a child under the age of 14.

Foster called the budget bill “devastating,” saying Illinois is “not exempt from the damage here.”

According to the most recent available USDA data, just over 700,000 households in Illinois were receiving SNAP benefits, which amounts to 14.1% of all households in the state. The percentage in Foster’s 11th Congressional District, for example, is lower, at 8.3% of households and 23,614 in total as of 2023.

Julie Yurko, the Northern Illinois Food Bank’s president and CEO, said the changes in eligibility requirements will put about 360,000 Illinoisans at risk of losing SNAP benefits.

One of the effects of the increased requirements, Foster said, is that many individuals may be discouraged by additional paperwork required to receive SNAP benefits.

For example, Casten pointed to children coming out of the foster care system, people who have been homeless and members of the veterans community as some of the groups which may have additional difficulties providing the necessary paperwork to enroll in SNAP.

Casten’s Sixth Congressional District includes Chicago’s Beverly and Mount Greenwood communities as well as south and southwest suburbs including Alsip, Hickory Hills, Oak Forest, Oak Lawn, Orland Park and Worth.

The difficulties of enrolling some individuals for food-related benefits also extend to local assistance, said John Arient of Stone Soup in Marengo, which provides hot soup and other food to individuals on a weekly basis. He said numerous undocumented people show up to its center and fill out the required paperwork, but he worries about the effects the changes will have.

“This, I’m afraid, is going to hurt so much,” Arient said.

Annette Johnson, the executive director of Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry in Aurora, said the number of students coming to pick up food at its distributions at East Aurora High School has been increasing significantly, which she thinks is in part due to undocumented families relying more on the distributions.

Food pantry leaders explained the loss of SNAP benefits for some will likely further increase demand at the pantries, which is compounded by the pantries’ own federal funds being diminished.

Yurko said that cuts to two federal programs that the Northern Illinois Food Bank relies on — the Local Food Purchase Assistance, or LFPA, program and the Emergency Food and Shelter Program, or EFSP — are going to reduce the food bank’s budget by $3 million to $4 million annually.

The future of the LFPA, a COVID-19 pandemic-era program, had been uncertain before the federal tax bill, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture froze funds for the program back in March, disrupting food supply and distribution at local pantries, according to past reporting.

And the SNAP and federal funding cuts are compounded by the effects of inflation, Yurko said, noting an increase in food insecurity in the area in the past few years that hasn’t let up.

“We saw it (inflation) hit,” Yurko said. “We know exactly when inflation kicked in … and we saw more folks turning to us.”

Now, with the federal tax bill passed, Foster said there’s still some uncertainty as to when the changes officially go into effect. In addition to fighting cuts in the courts, Foster said he and other lawmakers will spend the next year and a half trying to convince Republican legislators that they “made a mistake in many of the things they just voted for, and that maybe they would be willing to support legislation that would mitigate some of the damage.”

“When they see the damage hit a lot of their predominantly rural districts, I think … there’s a good chance they will end up having a little buyer’s remorse on this,” Foster said.

The Associated Press contributed.

mmorrow@chicagotribune.com