California Still Withholding Baby2Baby Diaper Contract After 2 Months

More than two months after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a multimillion-dollar state diaper contract with the nonprofit Baby2Baby, California officials still have not released the contract or the competitive bid records behind the deal, despite repeated requests from CBS California Investigates and state law requiring their disclosure.

CBS California Investigates requested the contract on May 12, four days after Newsom unveiled the partnership at a Capitol press conference. The outlet asked the administration to skip the formal California Public Records Act process given the intense public interest, but the state took 24 days just to determine whether the records were disclosable. It then said it would need another 28 days to provide them. On July 3, a state holiday, CBS California received an email saying the state needed two more weeks.

Baby2Baby has existing ties to the Newsom administration and to First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Both the contract and bid records are explicitly classified as public under California law, which requires agencies to notify requesters within 10 days whether records will be disclosed.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers are advancing Assembly Bill 1821, which would extend the 10-day determination window and 14-day extension window from calendar days to business days, giving agencies more time to respond to records requests. Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco's original bill would have let agencies sue requesters deemed "malicious" and charge up to $66 an hour for records, but the Senate Judiciary Committee stripped those provisions.

"People shouldn't have to tell us why they want that information. People shouldn't have to pay to get information from public officials," said Senate Judiciary Chair Tom Umberg.

Ginny LaRoe of the First Amendment Coalition argued that major contracts should be public before anyone even has to ask. "You should have had it in your hand the day they were talking about it," she said, suggesting the state proactively post finalized agreements online with limited redactions. Umberg said he supports moving toward that kind of automatic disclosure.

Pacheco defended the changes, saying agencies face a sharp rise in overly broad requests.

As of Friday, 56 days had passed since the initial request, with the Baby2Baby contract and underlying bid documents still unreleased, leaving unanswered questions about how the deal was reached and how competing proposals were scored.