Gov. Gavin Newsom said the $6.2 million Baby2Baby contract "went through a competitive bidding process." State records reveal it didn't. CBS California Investigates found dozens of similar no-bid deals in the state budget worth over $1 billion.
Updated on: July 17, 2026 / 3:13 PM EDT / CBS News California
When Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Baby2Baby would manufacture and distribute millions of free California co-branded diapers to every new parent, he claimed the deal "went through a competitive bidding process."
California's official contract database lists the $6.2 million Baby2Baby deal as "NON-COMPETITIVELY BID."
CBS California Investigates found more than two dozen similar exemptions in California's new state budget totaling more than $1 billion in appropriations for programs ranging from a $253 million opioid-response fund to suicide-crisis grants to a $12.9 million prison re-entry program . Two out of three of the exemptions never expire.
Because these deals are also exempt from state contracting oversight, they are largely hidden from public view and don't appear in California's public database of no-bid contracts.
Had the governor not publicly announced the Baby2Baby contract, prompting questions about the nonprofit's ties to Newsom and his wife, the "non-competitively bid" contract may never have been discovered.