Live updates: Trump administration, government shutdown news ahead of Election Day

The Trump administration is shifting $450 million in unused tariff revenue to keep the WIC food assistance program afloat into November, according to the National WIC Association. It comes after the program received a $300 million infusion last month amid the government shutdown.

The latest funds may cover about three weeks of benefits for the nearly 7 million pregnant women, new moms and young children who participate in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC. However, the money might run out sooner since families will only receive half of their usual allotment of benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, for November.

“With other vital assistance programs like SNAP disrupted, demand for WIC is likely to surge, and states could exhaust these funds even faster,” Georgia Machell, the association’s CEO, said in a statement.

A number of states have said that more people are signing up for WIC and that they are using more of their monthly benefits, Ali Hard, the association’s director of policy, told CNN. WIC helps enrollees purchase infant formula, cheese, bread, fruits, vegetables and other staples, as well as providing breastfeeding and nutrition support.

“WIC absolutely cannot replace SNAP,” she said. “They are really meant to work together to support families.”

The infusion, first reported by Politico, comes as the Trump administration said it will not use the leftover tariff funds to provide full food stamp benefits for November because it doesn’t want to put at risk the child nutrition programs that the revenue supports. Instead, the US Department of Agriculture will drain its roughly $5.3 billion contingency fund to pay partial SNAP benefits.