What Texas SB 29 Prohibits: Mask and Vaccine Mandates

Texas Senate Bill 29 permanently prohibits state and local government bodies in Texas from imposing COVID-19 mask mandates, vaccine requirements, or forced closures of private businesses and schools. Governor Abbott signed SB 29 on June 2, 2023, and it took effect September 1 of that year, adding a new chapter to the Texas Health and Safety Code.¹ The chapter was originally numbered 81B and was renumbered to 81C in 2025 without any change in substance.²

What SB 29 Prohibits

The law contains three separate bans, each in its own section of Chapter 81C.

Section 81C.002 bars any covered government entity from requiring a person to wear a face mask or other face covering to prevent the spread of COVID-19.³ It reaches formal orders, internal policies, and conditions placed on entering a government building or receiving government services.

Section 81C.003 prohibits government entities from requiring anyone to be vaccinated against COVID-19.⁴ A government employer cannot condition a job on the shot, and a government-run facility cannot demand proof of vaccination for access. The ban covers both the initial vaccine and later boosters.

Section 81C.004 prohibits government entities from ordering the closure of a private business, public school, open-enrollment charter school, or private school to prevent the spread of COVID-19.⁵ This is the provision that directly answers the early-pandemic shutdown orders that closed restaurants, gyms, retail, and school campuses.

One gap in the closure section is worth flagging. The statute targets closure orders specifically. It does not, by its text, address capacity caps, reduced operating hours, or other partial restrictions. A city could not order a restaurant to shut its doors over COVID-19, but the statute’s wording does not clearly extend to ordering it to operate at reduced capacity.

Who the Law Applies To

Section 81C.001 defines “governmental entity” to include the state itself, state agencies, local government entities as defined in the Texas emergency management statutes, and open-enrollment charter schools.⁶ In practice that covers every county, city, school district, and special-purpose district in Texas. If a body exercises government authority and spends public money, SB 29 almost certainly applies to it.

The law does not reach private entities. Private businesses, private schools, private hospitals, private nursing homes, and private doctors’ offices set their own policies on masks and vaccines. People sometimes assume SB 29 stripped private healthcare providers of that authority. It did not. A separate statute, Senate Bill 7, covers private-employer vaccine mandates and is handled by the Texas Workforce Commission on a different enforcement track.⁷

Exceptions Built Into SB 29

The mask ban in Section 81C.002 carves out three categories of government-run facilities where infection control carries higher stakes. These exceptions apply only to the mask provision, not to the vaccine or closure bans.

State supported living centers, which are residential facilities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, may continue to require masks under applicable rules set by the Health and Human Services Commission.⁸
Correctional facilities, including prisons run by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Juvenile Justice Department facilities, and municipal or county jails, may impose mask requirements subject to guidance from the Commission on Jail Standards.⁸
Government-owned healthcare facilities, including hospitals and clinics operated by or associated with public universities, may maintain their own mask policies.⁸

The vaccine ban in Section 81C.003 has a different kind of exception. It applies “only to the extent” it does not conflict with the federal CMS rule published on November 5, 2021, which requires staff at facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid to be vaccinated.⁴ The U.S. Supreme Court upheld that rule in Biden v. Missouri in January 2022, finding the Secretary of Health and Human Services had the authority to tie vaccination to federal healthcare funding.⁹ A government-owned hospital that takes Medicare or Medicaid may therefore still need to meet the federal vaccination requirement for staff, even though Texas law otherwise bans it. Whether and how the federal rule is being enforced depends on current CMS priorities, so facilities in that position should check the latest federal guidance.

What SB 29 Does Not Do

Three limits on the law are worth stating plainly, because searchers often expect more coverage than SB 29 actually provides.

It does not regulate private employers. A private business can still require its staff to mask, and vaccine mandates by private employers are addressed separately under SB 7 and Chapter 81D of the Health and Safety Code, with complaints running through the Texas Workforce Commission.⁷

It does not regulate private healthcare providers. A private hospital, nursing home, or clinic can set its own mask and vaccination rules for patients and visitors.

It does not clearly reach partial restrictions like capacity limits or reduced hours. The closure ban is written against closure orders, not against every operating restriction a government body might impose in the name of COVID-19.

1
Texas Legislature Online. History for 88(R) SB 29
2
Texas State Law Library. COVID-19 and Texas Law – Mask Laws
3
Justia Law. Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 81C
4
State of Texas. Texas Health and Safety Code 81C.003 – Prohibited Vaccine Mandate
5
State of Texas. Texas Health and Safety Code 81C.004 – Prohibited Closure Mandate for Private Businesses and Schools
6
State of Texas. Texas Health and Safety Code 81C.001 – Definitions
7
Texas Workforce Commission. COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
8
State of Texas. Texas Health and Safety Code 81B.002 – Prohibited Face-Covering Mandate
9
Supreme Court of the United States. Biden v. Missouri, 595 U.S. ___ (2022)