[maxander]

No one cares if they build websites for the gov't (indeed it's exemplary citizenship), the concern is rather that their involvement will include influencing policy. They have many interests relating to existing or potential regulations (on self-driving cars or big-data mining, for instance.) Their interests aren't necessarily so obviously malign as oil or cigarette lobbyists, but we'd still like regulators to be theoretically acting purely for the sake of the public good.