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During an Illinois Senate Revenue Committee hearing recently,
state Sen. Don DeWitte, R-St. Charles, asked state Sen. Lakesia
Collins, D-Chicago, why she thought 150,000 Illinoisans lost
federal food assistance.
“The cuts from the big ugly bill to SNAP benefits,” Collins
said.
DeWitte said the Illinois Department of Human Services director
suggested during a budget hearing the night before that federal
cuts were not the reason, but instead it was because people no
longer qualify.
DeWitte said Illinois would face penalties due its error rate
for missed or mistaken payments.
“Do you have any idea what that payment is going to cost the
state of Illinois? I have the answer for you. It’s going to cost
the state of Illinois $700 million,” DeWitte said.
DeWitte said Illinois’ error rate of nearly 12% has not changed,
even with 150,000 people removed from SNAP because they don’t
qualify.
“So don’t give us this crap about revenue cuts from the federal
government. You need to look at our own internal department of
human services to find out why these people were really cut,”
DeWitte said.
Collins said she received SNAP benefits before she joined the
General Assembly.
“When you have some people who serve here who are afraid to
stand up to these corporations, who make up excuses such as
yourself, who look people like me in the eyes and tell us that
we’re not worthy to be able to provide for our families…”
The committee chair, Sen. Celina Villanueva, D-Chicago,
interrupted both Collins and DeWitte several times as they
debated.
“I get that on these issues there is a lot of feelings in terms
of what’s going on here, but we’re going to have decorum in this
room,” Villanueva said.
The heated discussion took place during a subject matter hearing
on Collins’ legislation that would decouple Illinois from
several federal tax cut provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill
Act passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump last
year.
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