Texas Protect Our Open Beaches
Ensure that Texas beaches remain open and free, and defend against legislative attacks that would weaken beach access protection
Over the course of the 2025 Texas State Legislative session, the Texas chapters of the Surfrider Foundation rallied opposition to the following bills that proposed to weaken beach access protections afforded by the Texas Open Beaches Act and the state constitution:
- House Bill 4660 (Representative J. Lopez) -would give the city of Starbase authority over highway and beach closures for space flight activities
- House Bill 4661 (Representative J. Lopez) -would criminalize failure to evacuate during space flight activities and assign city of Starbase as primary enforcer
- Senate Bill 2188 (Senator A. Hinojosa) -would give city of Starbase authority over highway and beach closures for space flight activities
- Senate Bill 2230 (Senator A. Hinojosa) -would criminalize failure to evacuate during space flight activities and assign city of Starbase as primary enforcer
- House Bill 802 (Representative Leo-Wilson) -would create partially approved status for Dune Protection and Beach Access plans
A summary of the outcomes related to beach access from the 2025 TX Legislative Session can be found here.
As we look ahead to the 2027 legislative session, we expect continued efforts to erode public beach access rights, and we maintain vigilance over local efforts that are inconsistent with state laws and rules related to protection of public beach access.