Ben Albritton is confident Legislature will pass Hope Florida bill this Session

Ben Albritton's 'Rural Renaissance' gets the thumbs up form the FMA.

Senate President Ben Albritton said he is optimistic that the Legislature will pass a bill codifying Hope Florida this Session, even as First Lady Casey DeSantis’ charity gains more scrutiny.

In a new CBS Miami interview, Albritton praised Hope Florida’s mission but said he also supports adding more transparency measures.

“We should be about the budget. We should be about continuous improvement. So when we see things that may either appear to be incorrect or not as transparent as we would like, that provides opportunity for us to, not throw the baby out with the bath water, but just have a conversation about, how do we do it better?” Albritton said during “Facing South Florida with Jim DeFede.”

Hope Florida has been under fire from House Republicans after the charity reportedly steered millions to other organizations to help defeat last year’s marijuana ballot initiative.

Hope Florida had received $10 million from a Medicaid settlement between the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) and Centene. That pot of money has also drawn controversy.

“There were $10 million that should have gone back to the State Treasury in a settlement agreement between Centene and AHCA, which is an agency of the state of Florida, and instead it went to Hope Florida and it did so in the dark of night. And that’s really where the frustration comes from,” House Speaker Daniel Perez told Matt Gaetz in an OANN interview last week.

The Legislature is considering whether to make Hope Florida a permanent part of the Governor’s Office, but the clock is ticking. May 2 is the last scheduled day of the Regular Session.

DeFede asked Albritton about the timeline for passing the Hope Florida bills this Session. Sen. Danny Burgess sponsored SB 1144, while the House version (HB 1327) is sponsored by Rep. Anne Gerwig.

“Should those issues be corrected first and then, for instance, maybe next Session come back with that issue when all these other questions are cleared up?” DeFede asked. “Can you move forward with embedding Hope Florida, sort of with a permanency, and then try to clean up what may be a mess in terms of their transparency later?”

“There’s a lot of time left on the clock this year to try to figure out how to look at these opportunities to do better, and … craft the language and make it right,” Albritton said. “So I’m optimistic that we’re going to be able to figure it out this year.”

The First Lady started Hope Florida in 2021 to connect public and private sectors, nonprofits and religious organizations to help those in need.

“I do believe it will help people that need direction to be able to build a better path for their life, so the overarching goal of Hope Florida really makes sense to me,” Albritton said. “I like the idea a lot.”