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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) cannot and should not change its rules to allow for the uncontrolled proliferation of new cell towers and other wireless infrastructures, according to comments filed Dec. 31, 2025, with the FCC by Children’s Health Defense (CHD).
On Sept. 9, 2025, the FCC proposed new rules aimed at “eliminating barriers to wireless deployments” by silencing local communities. The rules target communities that attempt to resist efforts by telecom companies to build new cell towers next to homes and schools.
According to CHD, the proposed new rules are a “misguided” distraction from the FCC’s clear legal responsibility to comply with a 2021 court mandate that the agency explain how its wireless radiation safety limits protect human health.
W. Scott McCollough, lead litigator for CHD’s Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) & Wireless cases, who filed the comments on behalf of CHD, told The Defender in an email, “What the FCC *must* do is tend to the 2021 DC Circuit Court’s remand requiring them to address health and environmental effects.”
On Aug. 13, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled the FCC failed to consider the non-cancer evidence of adverse health effects related to wireless technology when the agency determined its radiofrequency (RF) radiation safety limits adequately protected public health. The agency hadn’t updated the safety limits since 1996.
The ruling stemmed from CHD’s win in a case consolidated with the Environmental Health Trust, which also challenged the FCC’s decision not to update the 1996 limits.
The District of Columbia Circuit panel majority told the FCC it must do a better job of explaining how its 1996 limits adequately protected public health, and remanded the case back to the FCC. The ruling required the FCC to reopen its investigation into the agency’s RF radiation exposure limits to verify that they are adequately protecting people’s health.
The panel majority also told the FCC it must:
“(ii) address the impacts of RF radiation on children, the health implications of long-term exposure to RF radiation, the ubiquity of wireless devices, and other technological developments that have occurred since the Commission last updated its guidelines, and (iii) address the impacts of RF radiation on the environment.”
But the FCC hasn’t complied with the order, despite an April 2023 petition from CHD urging them to “quit stalling,” and an August 2025 petition from EHT urging the agency to comply.
Instead, the FCC now wants to make it easy for telecom companies to install cell towers in communities without residents’ consent — even if the tower isn’t really needed to close a coverage gap in cell service, said Miriam Eckenfels, director of CHD’s EMR & Wireless Program.
“This is the most aggressive push we’ve ever seen to override local zoning, erase public participation and force dense wireless infrastructure into residential areas under the guise of streamlining wireless infrastructure deployment,” Eckenfels said.
Roughly 50 groups and another 50 individuals signed onto CHD’s comments.
‘If the wireless company wants a tower, it will get that tower’
The comments outlined a litany of legal and ethical reasons why the FCC should not adopt new rules favoring the uncontrolled expansion of wireless infrastructure in residential areas and near schools.
The new rules would force local communities to accept a “massive, fast-tracked buildout of wireless infrastructure, without community input, and without regard for key zoning considerations like aesthetics, setbacks, property values, and community character,” CHD said.
Some of what the FCC proposes in the new rules exceeds the agency’s authority under the federal Communications Act and the U.S. Constitution.
“If the FCC does what it is proposing, then local permitting will become a sham,” McCollough said. “The zoning authorities won’t have much remaining control over placement, modification or construction of cell towers.”
Nearby residents will have no meaningful pathway to contest the tower plans, he said. “The process will be a mere ministerial rubber-stamp exercise. If the wireless company wants a tower, it will get that tower.”
People have until Jan. 15 to submit comments
The FCC’s public comment window for the proposed rules closed Dec. 31, 2025, but reply comments are accepted through Jan. 15.
Eckenfels encouraged people to file a comment. “We need to show there’s massive public opposition.”
CHD has created an easy-to-use template that walks people through submitting a comment and alerting their local officials.
When a group of local governments asked the FCC to extend the deadline to Jan. 31, given the federal holiday break around Christmas and New Year’s, the agency refused.
That suggests the FCC intends to rush out a decision as soon as it can, McCollough said.
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CHD threatens legal action if FCC adopts the new rules
In its comments to the FCC, CHD attached a Nov. 25, 2025, motion the organization filed with the agency, urging the FCC to collaborate with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to set wireless radiation exposure limits that protect public health.
“The document essentially tells the FCC to either protect people, or get out of the way and let other federal agencies, like HHS, set health and safety limits for wireless radiation exposure,” Eckenfels said.
CHD’s comments and the motion are important “because before we can go back to the D.C. Court and complain that the FCC hasn’t complied, we have to show that we’ve tried telling the FCC that they need to do what the court asked,” she added.
If the agency doesn’t comply soon, CHD will be in a position to take the FCC back to court, she said.
“The comments and the motion are part of the administrative record, which forms the basis for a potential future lawsuit,” Eckenfels said, “We have been open about suing over these rules, if adopted, and will do so if the FCC does move forward with this overly aggressive proposal.”
Related articles in The Defender- ‘Unprecedented’ Power Grab: FCC, Congress Race to Strip Local Control Over Cell Towers
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- Historic New Mexico Town Blocks Cell Tower After Consulting Lawyer Featured in The Defender
- Cell Tower Developers ‘Lying’ About Coverage Gaps to Push New Towers, Lawyer Says
