Texas Lawmakers Back Effort To Lift Camp Fiber Requirement

WASHINGTON, May 7, 2026 — Top Texas lawmakers backed efforts Tuesday to lift a state requirement forcing youth camps to install fiber internet service.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, R-Texas, and Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, said they supported removing a requirement that camps maintain “end-to-end fiber optic facilities” in order to operate this summer after camps argued the mandate could cost millions of dollars and threaten summer operations.

“We also recognize that there may be means other than fiber to provide reliable, redundant internet access, which would satisfy the purpose and spirit of the law,” Patrick and Burrows said in a joint statement.

The comments came after 19 Texas summer camps filed a lawsuit in April seeking to block the requirement. The camps argued the rule was too expensive, technologically unclear and, in some cases, impossible to meet.

The provision, passed during Texas’s 2025 special legislative session, requires camps to maintain broadband service using end-to-end fiber optic facilities and a second, distinct broadband connection.

Texas adopted the requirement after the July 2025 flood in the Texas Hill Country that killed 25 campers and two counselors at Camp Mystic. Emergency responders initially struggled to confirm conditions at the camp because communications infrastructure failed during the disaster.

The camps said internet providers told them the required service either could not be delivered, could not be verified as “end-to-end,” or would be prohibitively expensive.

Camp Liberty was quoted roughly $1 million upfront plus monthly service fees, while Camp Longhorn received a quote exceeding $1.2 million, according to the filing.

The lawsuit also argued the rule failed to account for rural camps where fiber service may not exist or may be economically infeasible.

Patrick and Burrows said lawmakers are expected to revisit camp safety standards during Texas’s 2027 legislative session while ensuring camps continue operating “in good faith” under updated regulations. 

The Texas Department of State Health Services previously declined to remove the fiber requirement during rulemaking, saying the broadband and redundancy provisions were mandated directly by state law.