TALHASSEE — As state lawmakers progress through the legislative meetings, it appears that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ legacy and the political future of his wife Casey are on the line.
Lawmakers haven’t yet covered one of the couple’s top priorities this year. It enforces the law a conservative vision for welfare in Florida.
Launched by Casey DeSantis in 2021, Florida aims to divert Floridians from government assistance and services to faith-based charities and other charities.
So far, it has been operating under the governor’s authority, and details surrounding its performance, HR and separate funding departments are vague. Ron DeSantis wants legislation to create a Florida Hope office within the governor’s office, but it’s the first time the proposal has gained air in either the House or Senate when lawmakers incorporate the idea into the Senate committee next week.
If time runs out at legislative meetings, the proposal could be another casualty in this year’s Congressional battle with the governor.
Crushing the law programme would give her a legislative victory to promote this summer in a crowded Republican primary. It could also alleviate concerns about her lack of experience.
Former television reporter Casey DeSantis has never been appointed.
The governor promotes the creation of the program at newspaper conferences, promoting resumes and relationships with his administration, popular among Republicans.
“Some people are showing horses, they’re babbling, they can’t accomplish anything, and some are organizers,” the governor said last month after Casey DeSantis was asked about running for governor in 2026.
“Whether it’s cancer innovation, whether it’s behavioral health, whether it’s Florida’s hope, there were actions and consequences.”
Lawmakers say they are running out of time to promote governor’s priority legislation earlier this year, as DeSantis distracted time and attention from the regular sessions. It is scheduled to end on May 2nd.
“We’re dealing with a massive influx of bills that came out late,” said Rep. Lauren Mello, a Napoli Republican who is in charge of hopes for the first committee of the Florida House of Representatives.
“We have a massive traffic congestion issue,” said R Melbourne Sen. Randy Fein, who oversaw the bill’s first committee in the Senate, on Wednesday to leave Congress to run for Congress.
On Thursday, the committee’s vice-president put it on Tuesday’s agenda.
Both the fine and Melo said they are against a law that requires at least 11 state agencies to allocate existing resources and wish to Florida at the governor’s direction. For example, agents are asked to maintain a call hotline or assign a case manager.
According to Desantis’s office, the goal is to assign Hope Navigators to “leave Hope Navigators on a separate path to prosperity and economic independence.” Navigators are supposed to streamline the state’s services, from food benefits to hurricane aid, and send residents to networks of nonprofits, religious institutions and private companies for everything else.
“As opposed to perpetuating the reliance on great social style of bureaucracy, Florida is using government to connect individuals and families to more than 5,600 faith-based, community, private sector partners,” DeSantis said in a speech to Congress this month.
In his address, he highlighted the case of Ginger Folk. Ginger Falk is the 35-year-old Lakeland mom of two whom she said she helped the hope navigator get out of “poverty.” Falk told the crowd that the navigator received his high school diploma in 2021 and found a grant in 2023 to become an assistant to a licensed physiotherapist.
According to a video on Casey Desantis’ X account, Faulk said, “It’s because she believed in me. “She was able to put resources ahead of me and tell the kids, ‘We’ll get this, God gets us, and we’re going to get through this.” ”
However, some lawmakers and observers have questioned whether Hope Florida is striving for overlapping and important resources across the state government, including within the children and families currently resident.
According to a spokesman, Florida has 115 hope navigators across the state government. This includes the director of the Youth Advocacy Office, according to a video from a Florida video posted on X. The position was created within the Department of Juvenile Justice after the widespread abuse of the area was revealed by the Herald.
We hope that Florida helpline is currently funded by the Federal Child Abuse Prevention Grant through the US Rescue Plan. Lawmakers suggest spending around $2 million on helpline staff this year.
“From what I know, the very limited I know about what Florida does makes it seem like agencies can do the same job,” said Rep. Vicki Lopez, a Miami Republican, who is critical of state spending under DeSantis. “You can have your case manager do the job within the agency.”
State officials have released few details about the program’s performance, citing it as helping 30,000 Floridians move out of state aid. Children and family spokespersons did not answer questions about the total number of people supported across the state and in each county. Hope Florida Magazine Smiling Recipient Photos are stock images.
The state also established a separate funding unit, the Hope Florida Foundation, for the program. The Hope Florida Foundation includes lobbyists from Walgreens and Koch Industries, a large private company founded by the conservative mega-donor Koch brothers.
The Children and Family Division is not published in the Times/Herald public records regarding the Foundation, such as non-commercial tax forms, their donors, or money recipients. None of the documents are online. Last July, Casey Desantis awarded $375,000 from the foundation across the top 13 churches participating in Hope Florida.
Sen. Danny Burgess, a Zephyr Hills Republican who sponsors Florida’s Hope Bill in his room, told the Times/Herald that the session would win.
“It’s a creative solution to not growing governments, but it’s leveraging the power of an organization that’s already doing very good things,” Burgess said.
Miami Herald reporter Carol Marvin Miller and Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau reporter Anna Seboros contributed to the report.
