Gov. Ron DeSantis is seeking $150K in the Florida budget to establish a new office dedicated to providing faith services to government officials and vulnerable Floridians.
The Governor's Office of Faith and Community would operate under the Executive Office of the Governor, expanding DeSantis's focus on religious support after he created a similar office last month aimed at connecting Floridians with faith and community services.
According to the proposed legislation, the new office would deliver "relevant and useful information" from state agencies and the governor's office to faith networks and remove government obstacles that "unnecessarily restrict, impede, or otherwise burden" faith and community services.
It would be led by a governor-appointed "Liaison for Faith and Community," who would be charged with advising "relevant" agency heads on faith and community-based initiatives. The bill stipulates that DeSantis would be the one who determines which agencies the liaison engages with.
And per DeSantis's 376-page budget proposal for the next fiscal year, he wants $150K to shore up the new office.
"It is...the intent of the Legislature to establish and create outlets of governmental infrastructure to preserve, protect, advance, and better connect the faith and community networks of Florida for the greater social and economic benefit of generations to come," the proposed measure reads.
This is only the latest move in a series of faith-based initiatives pushed by DeSantis, who has come under fire for integrating faith initiatives into state government. He was previously criticized for hosting a statewide tour with religious leaders to blast a proposed pro-abortion amendment.
Most recently, Democrat Rep. Anna Eskamani accused the governor of attempting to lay the groundwork for pumping public money into campaign initiatives.
"Flagging that in the proposed budget, he wants to legalize campaign coordination the EOG did during their anti-abortion campaign," she wrote. "They spent PUBLIC MONEY to campaign against Amendment 4."
The Office of Faith and Community would be based on the Florida Faith and Community Advisory Council, which DeSantis established in 2019. Similarly, he created the Hope Florida Office in January to connect Floridians in need to accessible faith or community-based services. That program was founded by Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis.
Currently, Erik Dellenback serves as the head of the Hope Florida Office and the Faith and Community Advisory Council. The governor's office did not respond to a request for comment on the need for separate offices, or why the Faith Office would soon be created.
Republican Rep. Doug Bankson has already filed a near-identical version of the governor's proposed bill, though there's no comparison bill in the Senate.
The regular session begins on March 4.
