(Salt Lake City, UT) — Governor Spencer Cox is promising that benefits for mothers and children in the Utah Women, Infants and Children Program will continue if the federal government shuts down this weekend. Cox made that pledge Thursday. A statement from the Governor’s Office said the state will use money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide benefits for more than 44-thousand pregnant women, mothers, and children who use the WIC program. The federal government will partially shut down at midnight Saturday unless Congress approves funding for the start of the new fiscal year.