Nutrition Assistance Integrity. SNAP attestation at the rail.

The Nutrition Assistance Integrity vertical is a new attestation profile on the existing JIL Sovereign Verdict Engine, with SNAP as the lead use case. It binds twenty-eight statutory and behavioral checks to a named policy profile (snap.v1) and produces a Court Ready Evidence Bundle anchored on CourtChain L1 for every flagged transaction, every disqualified retailer, and every skimming reimbursement claim.

The vertical is positioned as the tenth on the canonical site list. It composes alongside the Pre-Settlement Fraud Attestation pillar (real-time authorization) and the Retroactive Verification pillar (historical scan), without altering the architecture of either pillar. The verdict engine is unchanged; the rules are new; the data sources are mostly public federal feeds.

The vertical is SNAP-first. Phase 2 through Phase 4 expansion extends the same Verdict Engine to WIC, school nutrition, and child nutrition programs across the USDA FNS portfolio without architectural change.

In scope · Phase 1 (SNAP)

All SNAP transactions on EBT cards issued by participating state agencies. Retailer authorization, basket eligibility, trafficking detection, skimming detection, cardholder eligibility drift.

Out of scope · Phase 1

WIC (state-specific Authorized Product List handling, voucher and eWIC card flows under 42 U.S.C. § 1786). School Nutrition Programs (institutional billing model under 42 U.S.C. § 1751, not EBT card-based). Child Nutrition (CACFP and SFSP under 42 U.S.C. § 1761 and § 1766, sponsor and site-level reimbursement model).

Statutory anchors (Phase 1)

Twenty-eight checks across five signal categories. Each check binds to a statutory citation, fires either pre-settlement (block, hold) or retroactively (score, audit), and contributes a documented evidence chain to the CREB output.

Category A · Retailer Authorization (6 checks)

Category B · Basket Eligibility (7 checks)

Category C · Trafficking Patterns (7 checks)

Category D · Cardholder Behavior and Skimming (5 checks)

Category E · Recipient Eligibility Drift (3 checks)

The SNAP profile draws from seven distinct data feeds. Four are public federal feeds available without contractual access. Three require integration agreements with state agencies, processors, or GS1 licensees. All feeds load into the customer-side Verdict Engine; raw data does not transit JIL infrastructure.

The Verdict Engine deploys in three topologies depending on the customer surface: directly inside the EBT processor (Pattern A, lowest latency), inside the state agency Snowpark or JIL Cloud enclave (Pattern B, retroactive primary), or as a federal channel deployment supporting USDA OIG (Pattern C, forensic primary).

Pattern A · EBT Processor In-Line

The Verdict Engine runs as a sidecar to the processor's authorization switch. ISO 8583 authorization messages branch on a tap, the Verdict Engine returns a verdict within the latency budget, the processor decisions based on the verdict (allow, hold, block). Verdict roundtrip is fully synchronous with authorization. Production target: 99.95th percentile under 800ms end-to-end.

Pattern B · State Agency Enclave

The Verdict Engine runs in the state's Snowpark Container Services environment or JIL Cloud EKS environment. Authorization data streams from the processor under a state agency data sharing agreement. Verdicts are produced asynchronously, with retroactive scan as the primary mode and quasi-real-time alerts as the secondary mode. Used where state owns the data but does not own the rail.

Pattern C · Federal Forensic

The Verdict Engine runs in a JIL Cloud federal-cleared environment (FedRAMP Moderate or High, depending on data classification). Historical EBT data from USDA FNS or USDA OIG is loaded for forensic scan. Used for trafficking case development and administrative disqualification packages. Air-gap variant available for OIG sensitive cases.

# Pattern A · EBT Processor In-Line (high level)

processor_switch
    │
    ├──→ authorize()            # normal path, returns to terminal
    │
    └──→ tap ──→ VerdictEngine
                    │
                    ├── load: DS.01, DS.02, DS.03, DS.07, DS.08
                    ├── evaluate: snap.v1 (28 checks)
                    ├── score: trafficking + skim
                    └── emit: {verdict, evidence_chain, anchor_ref}
                                │
                                ├──→ PoCS receipt          # cleared
                                ├──→ CREB.issue()          # held or blocked
                                └──→ CourtChain.anchor()   # 14/20 BFT seal

End-to-end verdict roundtrip from ISO 8583 message arrival to verdict emission, decomposed across five stages. Total latency budget is 800ms at the 99.95th percentile. Production target is 350ms median.

The Court Ready Evidence Bundle issued under the SNAP profile follows the canonical CREB anatomy, with three SNAP-specific extensions: the statutory citation chain, the FNS-anchored retailer identity, and the state agency disposition routing slip. Sample structure:

CREB {
  "creb_id": "CREB-2026-SNAP-7F4A2D",
  "profile": "snap.v1",
  "issued_at": "2026-05-12T14:33:21Z",
  "subject": {
    "transaction_id": "EBT-CONDUENT-X8843921",
    "fns_number": "0153729",
    "retailer_name": "[REDACTED PER 7 CFR 272.1(c)]",
    "amount": 78.42,
    "cardholder_hash": "sha3-256:..."
  },
  "checks_executed": 28,
  "checks_failed": [
    {"id": "SNAP.B.02", "statute": "7 U.S.C. § 2012(k)(3)",
     "evidence": "UPC 0123456789012 flagged ALCOHOL"},
    {"id": "SNAP.C.01", "statute": "7 CFR 271.2",
     "evidence": "Round-dollar density 0.84 retailer trailing 30d"}
  ],
  "verdict": "HOLD",
  "anchor": {
    "chain": "CourtChain L1",
    "block": 8843921,
    "tx_hash": "0x9347e...971e8"
  },
  "quorum": {
    "scheme": "14-of-20 BFT",
    "validators_signed": 17,
    "jurisdictions": ["US","CH","UAE","SG","BR","..."]
  },
  "crypto": "Ed25519 + Dilithium-III (ML-DSA-65)",
  "retention": "15+ years, customer Secure Document Vault",
  "admissibility": "FRE 902(14)",
  "disposition_routing": {
    "state_agency": "TX HHSC",
    "processor": "Conduent",
    "fns_region": "Southwest"
  }
}

POC.01 · Retroactive Forensic Scan

POC.02 · Pre-Settlement Integration Pilot

The following decisions require founder-level sign-off before the Nutrition Assistance Integrity vertical page goes live on jilsovereign.com and before the technical scope is socialized with prospective channel partners.