There are numerous policies enforced (or lack thereof) that greatly influence the bug bounty and ethical hacker market in the US. One of the most important is the vulnerability disclosure policy. This is because it affects consumers and organizations alike. Without proper vulnerability disclosure policies in place, bug bounty hunters cannot be sure that when they disclose these bugs to their respective organizations that they will not be held legally liable for doing so. This naturally reduces the amount of bug bounties brought to the attention of these companies, and potentially makes their companies more vulnerable as a result. Additionally, in the case of the federal government, it may be difficult to recruit top tier talent due to drug use policies. This talent may choose to work in the private sector, wherein the government loses out on this talent. Until companies choose to widespread adopt vulnerability disclosure policies and the federal government loosens their restrictions on drug use, there will be a large potential loss in talent and vulnerability disclosure that could benefit the security of organizations, and even our nation.