Because they are classified as contractors, not staff, most are not subject to the same conflict-of-interest rules as elected or appointed politicians—if they are subject to any restrictions at all. The effect has been to eliminate the so-called revolving door between government and industry and put in “an archway” (as the disaster management specialist Irwin Redlener put it to me). It has allowed the disaster industries to set up shop inside the government, using the reputations of such illustrious ex-politicians as cover.
