TALLAHASSEE — Legislative leaders agreed Friday not to fund a call line critical for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Hope Florida program, dealing a blow to one of his signature priorities.

During dealmaking to craft a state budget for the upcoming fiscal year, House and Senate leaders decided not to spend $2 million requested by DeSantis to staff 20 Hope Florida call line agents.

They also agreed not to give DeSantis four positions in the governor’s office to create a new Office of Hope Florida .

The decisions come amid intense scrutiny by House Republicans into the four-year-old program envisioned by first lady Casey DeSantis, which is intended to move Floridians off of government assistance.

The call line 833-GET-HELP, which is emblazoned on promotional materials and news releases, is central to that effort. Hope navigators, who function as caseworkers, are supposed to use the helpline to direct Floridians to local churches and nonprofits.

The helpline is currently funded by federal child abuse prevention grants through the American Rescue Plan, which is set to expire.

It’s not immediately clear what will happen to those positions during the upcoming fiscal year.

“I think we’re going to have to probably have a discussion with the governor and his staff about how we go forward,” said Sen. Ed Hooper, a Clearwater Republican who is chairperson of the Senate’s budget committee.

“Do they have funds available still left to do that? It’ll get revisited in a few months, when we come back for next session.”

DeSantis spokesperson Bryan Griffin said in a statement that the program would continue, noting that the positions existed before they were repurposed for Hope Florida.

“The good work of Hope Florida will continue uninterrupted despite a fringe group of House members’ political games over additional salaries & resources,” Griffin said in the statement.

DeSantis asked lawmakers to enshrine Hope Florida into state law this year, making it a permanent program in the governor’s office.

House Republicans instead dug into the program and its charity arm, the Hope Florida Foundation.

The state program spans at least a dozen agencies, but administration officials struggled to explain how it functions or how it’s been successful . During a tense House committee hearing in April, department heads didn’t know that there was someone in charge of the Hope Florida program.

In its four years, Hope Florida has helped about 115,000 people, according to its website. By comparison, the 211 system, a similar referral service that does not use state funds, took in nearly a million calls last year.

Lawmakers also discovered that the Hope Florida Foundation was used last year to move $10 million from a settlement with a Medicaid contractor to two nonprofits, which shifted nearly all of it to a political committee led by DeSantis’ then-chief of staff.

House Rep. Alex Andrade, a Pensacola Republican, said the series of transactions was illegal, and the state attorney’s office in Leon County has an open criminal investigation relating to it.