Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday went out of his way during his final State of the State speech to the Florida Legislature to tout his wife’s signature initiative, Hope Florida, despite a year of controversy about the program and its related charity.

In a speech that boasted of his last seven years of accomplishments, DeSantis singled out the program at the center of one of the biggest scandals of his tenure.

“We started a faith and community initiative to lay the groundwork for a new approach that recognized government is not the solution to lifting people up,” DeSantis said. “Under leadership of our first lady, this idea was put into practice through our Hope Florida initiative that links children and families in need with resources exterior to the government, including our churches and our charities.”

Created to help Floridians get off of government aid by connecting them with outside organizations, including churches, Hope Florida was identified last year by the governor as a legacy initiative for him and first lady Casey DeSantis. But lawmakers rejected his desire to enshrine the program in state law, and House Republicans began digging into the finances of the charity created by the state to support the program.

A Leon County prosecutor later convened a grand jury to look into the DeSantis administration’s decision to divert $10 million from a Medicaid settlement through the Hope Florida Foundation charity, most of which ended up in an anti-marijuana political committee controlled by the governor’s chief of staff. That investigation remains ongoing.

But DeSantis on Tuesday didn’t shy away from Hope Florida, reiterating old claims about the program’s success, which experts have cast doubt on.

“By leaning into our faith community, we have seen a historic 47% reduction in the number of children entering our child welfare system, and seen more than 33,000 Floridians reduce their reliance on public assistance, netting a budgetary savings of almost $130 million on an annual basis,” DeSantis said.

The DeSantis administration has been citing some variation of its estimate that roughly 30,000 Floridians have gotten off government aid for at least a year and a half. The Herald/Times reported that figure was at least 10 months old last April.

The Department of Children and Families said last year that Hope Florida helped 21,000 families referred to it by child protective investigators. But current and former leaders of foster care agencies told the Tampa Bay Times last year that the claims were exaggerated or false, and that the Hope Florida program was duplicating existing efforts in child welfare.

DeSantis’ touting of the Hope Florida program elicited a familiar response from House Speaker Daniel Perez.

“I don’t think it’s a secret on the House’s position with regard to Hope Florida,” Perez, a Miami Republican, told reporters after the governor’s speech. “The governor is entitled to his own opinion, and we respect his opinion, but at the same time, we disagree.”

But Sen. Debbie Mayfield, the chairwoman of the Senate’s Government Oversight and Accountability Committee who has had issues with the governor, defended Hope Florida, separating the state program from the charity.

Mayfield said the program has done a “good job” working with the state Department of Children and Families and religious organizations “to put families back on their feet and help children. That’s what he talked about.”

“It was nothing about the other Hope Florida Foundation,” Mayfield said.

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