TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — After six months of scrutiny and controversy, one of the DeSantis administration’s signature initiatives appears to have stalled.

For the first time since it launched, no state agency is asking for more money next year to grow Hope Florida, the state program spearheaded by the first lady that is intended to move Floridians off of government services.

The shift, after years of asking for millions of dollars to expand the program, raises doubts about Hope Florida’s future heading into Gov. Ron DeSantis’ final legislative session in January.

Neither the governor’s office nor state agency spokespeople would say why they opted against requesting more money in their budgets. Instead, it appears the program will make do with the resources it already has.

“The very successful Hope Florida initiative will continue to serve Floridians, as it always has,” DeSantis spokesperson Molly Best said.

The proposed budgets come amid questions from Republican lawmakers and news reporters about the Hope Florida program and how it’s been administered — and the recent revelation that a grand jury is probing a related charity.

Hope Florida was launched by first lady Casey DeSantis in 2021 as the administration’s conservative answer to welfare. Instead of directing needy Floridians to state services, Hope navigators spread across state agencies would instead divert them to services offered by local churches and nonprofits.

The DeSantises touted the program in public events and news releases over the years, and it was expected to be a potential springboard for Casey DeSantis to run for governor. It largely avoided scrutiny until this year, when DeSantis asked the Legislature to enshrine the program into law.

The administration struggled to demonstrate that the program works. The governor has repeatedly said it has removed 30,000 people from government welfare, saving $100 million, but the administration hasn’t provided data supporting those claims. (Hope Florida’s website says it has helped 25,500 people “reduce or eliminate reliance on public assistance to meet food or cash needs.”)

Other claims about Hope Florida have been disputed, including that the program helped reduce the number of Florida children in foster care by 7,000 and that it established Hope Florida liaisons in every sheriff’s office.

Amid the scrutiny, Republican lawmakers found that a charity created to assist the program — the Hope Florida Foundation — was used last year to move $10 million from a Medicaid settlement to a political committee controlled by DeSantis’ chief of staff, James Uthmeier.

The state attorney in Tallahassee has issued subpoenas for witnesses to testify next week in a criminal grand jury probe relating to the foundation, the Times/Herald reported.

DeSantis has said that Hope Florida uses existing resources, such as repurposing state employees as Hope navigators.

But in 2021, the Department of Children and Families asked to use $3 million from a federal grant to create a “Hope hotline.” The department carries out the bulk of the Hope Florida program.

Between 2022 and 2024, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, Department of Juvenile Justice, Department of Education and Department of Veterans Affairs submitted budget requests to get raises for Hope navigators or to create new positions for them. It’s not clear whether all of the requests were granted.

DeSantis also pushed to expand Hope Florida into the executive office earlier this year. In its initial budget request, the governor’s office asked for $535,000 to create an Office of Hope Florida. The governor later withdrew the request.

At the same time, the Department of Children and Families asked for $2 million to continue the Hope hotline this fiscal year. The call line was being paid for by federal child abuse prevention grants through the American Rescue Plan, which expired on Sept. 30, according to agency budget records.

Amid the scrutiny surrounding the program, lawmakers in June decided not to fund it. A spokesperson for DeSantis said at the time that existing money would cover the costs of the hotline.

Florida lawmakers are scheduled to convene for the 2026 legislative session beginning Jan. 13.

Morgan Jones, a spokesperson for the Department of Children and Families, would not say when contacted by a Times reporter this week what the lack of requests for additional funding for next year’s budget means for the future of Hope Florida.

“As we look forward to the next fiscal year, DCF will fulfill the mission of Hope Florida using the Department’s existing resources, and as such, did not request additional funding,” she said in a statement.

Rep. Alex Andrade, a Pensacola Republican whose health care budget committee investigated the program this year, said he has asked the secretaries of the Department of Children and Families and Agency for Health Care Administration for more information, but received no response.

“Until we get clarity from them, I don’t know if they’re hiding the activity with different verbiage, or actually winding down the program,” Andrade said in a text message.

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—Times/Herald staff writers Alexandra Glorioso and Romy Ellenbogen contributed to this report.

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