A former employer had to comply with a variety of federal hiring compliance rules. Any contractor they hired also had to comply with these rules. Thus we could

A former employer had to comply with a variety of federal hiring compliance rules. Any contractor they hired also had to comply with these rules. Thus we could only hire contractors from pre-vetted contracting companies as it was seen to be too much risk otherwise. Exceptions were made for very unique skillsets, but unless one is in the range of several K/hr, it is unlikely they'd fall in that bucket.