Gov. Ron DeSantis officials tied to Hope Florida saga try again for Senate confirmation

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s governor and attorney general are moving on from the Hope Florida saga.

Three confirmation hearings this week will indicate whether the Senate is too.

Two public officials who oversaw the development of the Hope Florida program — Shevaun Harris and Taylor Hatch — are up again for confirmations to senior posts in the DeSantis administration. The Senate declined to confirm them last year amid an investigation into the Hope Florida Foundation, created by the state to support first lady Casey DeSantis’ Hope Florida program.

The charity’s attorney, Jeff Aaron, is also up this week for confirmation to the state’s Public Employee Relations Commission after not being approved by the Senate last June.

Last year, Sen. Don Gaetz, chairman of the Committee on Ethics and Elections, declined to approve the appointments of Harris, Secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration, which oversees Medicaid, and Hatch, Secretary of the Department for Children and Families, where the Hope Florida Program is housed. Gaetz blocked their confirmations by denying them a hearing in his committee, which determines which appointments go before the full Senate for a vote.

The Senate allows two years to complete the confirmation process.

Gaetz had reservations about the appointments, given the House and media’s probe into the DeSantis administration’s decision to steer $10 million from a Medicaid settlement through the Hope Florida Foundation to a political committee run by the governor’s chief of staff. The committee was intent on defeating the recreational marijuana amendment in the 2024 election, which narrowly failed.

The charity’s board chairman, Joshua Hay, testified in a House committee last spring that Aaron told him to split the $10 million between two nonprofit organizations. He said Aaron gave him “assurances” that the transactions were “above board.”

A House representative asked whether Hay had believed the governor’s office and Department of Children and Families wanted him to approve the wire transfers to the nonprofits, which then gave most of the money to the political committee. “Correct,” Hay said.

In her role as Department of Children and Families secretary, Harris usually oversaw the charity’s grant approvals, but may not have known about these transactions, Hay said. He and Hatch, who was the department’s secretary during the probe, told lawmakers they didn’t know where the money went after it was sent to the nonprofits. In a previous role at the department, Hatch helped develop the Hope Florida program, which seeks to get Floridians off government aid by sending them, in part, to churches. The charity is supposed to support the mission.

On Monday, Gaetz told the Herald/Times he wasn’t sure how he was going to vote on the confirmations this year. But he does intend to take them up in committee.

“I plan to follow the hearings,” Gaetz, a Pensacola Republican, said in a text message. “And listen to questions and debate in Ethics and Elections before deciding.”

Hatch’s confirmation will be taken up by the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee on Tuesday. Harris’ will be taken up by the Senate Health Policy Committee on Wednesday, and Aaron’s by the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee. If they pass, they will move on to Gaetz’s committee before a floor vote.

Last week, the Senate confirmed another person caught up in the saga, Tina Vidal-Duart, who was serving on the board while the $10 million passed through the Hope Florida Foundation. The Senate confirmed her reappointment to the Florida Atlantic University Board of Trustees on Wednesday, the same day a conservative news outlet reported the federal government hadn’t taken up a case on the financial transactions.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier seized on the report as total exoneration. Uthmeier was in charge of the political committee that received most of the $10 million that had passed through the charity when he was DeSantis’ chief of staff.

In opposition to Vidal-Duart’s reappointment, Orlando Democratic Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith called the charity’s role in the money’s movement “gross,” and not “responsible public service.” He urged his colleagues to reject Vidal-Duart’s confirmation. Eight Democratic senators voted against her reappointment, which easily went through.

Vidal-Duart said the media report the governor seized on last week as total exoneration indicated the Department of Justice “does not anticipate any further action related to the Hope Florida Foundation.” Guillermo Smith’s comment was “without the full knowledge of the facts,” she told the Herald/Times.

While there appears to be no open federal investigation into the Hope Florida saga, a Leon County criminal case remains open, the state attorney’s office told the Herald/Times last week.

Senate Minority Leader Lori Berman said that was reason enough to reject the confirmations.

“The grand jury is literally still out on that case, and I don’t think we should be confirming anyone who has their hands in it,” Berman told the Herald/Times in a text message.