Why the Endangered Species ‘God Squad’ Is Meeting After 35 Years

In an executive order on his first day back in office, President Donald Trump directed an obscure panel of senior federal agency leaders called the Endangered Species Committee to start meeting regularly. The committee has the power to override certain legal protections for endangered species put at high risk by proposed industrial projects. In other words, it has the power to effectively condemn a species to extinction, earning the group a nickname: the God Squad.

More than a year into Trump’s second term, that committee is finally set to meet for the first time on March 31 after a legal challenge failed to stop it. It will be the first such convening in almost 35 years.