The leaders of two key health care agencies will remain in their posts after Gov. Ron DeSantis reappointed them last week.
Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Shevaun Harris and Department of Children and Families Secretary Taylor Hatch weren’t confirmed by the state Senate during the legislative session this year.
State law requires the governor to reappoint department leaders within 45 days after the end of the session if the Senate doesn’t confirm them. If the Senate fails to confirm them two years in a row, the appointees must leave their positions.
“The Governor was pleased to reappoint Secretary Hatch and Secretary Harris to their posts at DCF and AHCA, respectively, and appreciates their continued hard work and service to the state of Florida,” DeSantis spokeswoman Molly Best wrote in an email.
AHCA administers Florida’s Medicaid program and has a $36.5 billion budget with more than 1,500 positions. DCF’s duties include administering welfare programs, overseeing licensing for daycares and overseeing adoption, substance abuse and mental health programs. It has a $4.86 billion budget and more than 12,500 authorized positions.
DeSantis appointed Harris and Hatch to their roles on Feb. 28, a week before the start of the session. Senate Ethics and Elections Committee Chairman Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said his panel ran out of time to consider their appointments as a slate of more than 150 appointments were being considered in late April.
Hatch and Harris came under scrutiny earlier this year from a House committee investigating a $10 million payment from Centene, a Medicaid vendor, to a charity with ties to First Lady Casey DeSantis. The payment was a “donation” that was part of a $67 million settlement with the state concerning overpayments.
The $10 million was then funneled from the Hope Florida Foundation, the fundraising arm of the Hope Florida initiative spearheaded by Casey DeSantis, to other nonprofits, which in turn sent more than $8.4 million to a political committee chaired by DeSantis’ then-chief of staff James Uthmeier. DeSantis later appointed Uthmeier as Attorney General.
The political committee, Keep Florida Clean, was dedicated to defeating two constitutional amendments that would have explicitly installed abortion rights and legalized recreational marijuana. Defeating both was a top priority for DeSantis in the 2024 election cycle.
Harris and Hatch weren’t the only high-profile DeSantis appointees who failed to get confirmed this year.
The Senate opted not to confirm Tina Descovich, a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a conservative group that advocates against LGBTQ+ content in schools, as a Commission on Ethics board member. It was the second year in a row the chamber declined to confirm her, so she left the panel.
DeSantis replaced her and Freddie Figgers, a Central Florida businessman who had his $1,500 fine for failing to file his financial disclosure form rescinded by the ethics panel, with Michael Hellman and Jeremy Rodgers.
Gray Rohrer is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at grohrer@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: DCF, AHCA leaders reappointed by DeSantis amid scrutiny over $10M donation
Reporting by Gray Rohrer, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Tallahassee Democrat
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