Department of Education Mohela

Dear james dziobek, Request #23-00957-F has been assigned to the request you submitted. In all future correspondence regarding this request, please reference FOIA tracking number 23-00957-F. Please refer to the FOIA tracking number to check the status of your FOIA request at the link provided below: https://foiaxpress.pal.ed.gov/app/CheckStatus.aspx (https://foiaxpress.pal.ed.gov/app/CheckStatus.aspx) For any future correspondence, status updates or questions regarding your request, please contact the FOIA Public Liaison via email to EDFOIAManager@ed.gov Regards, Department of Education, Office of the Executive Secretariat

Dear james dziobek,

The status of your FOIA request #23-00957-F has been updated to the following status 'In Process'. To log into the DoEd FOIA Portal click on the Application URL below.

https://foiaxpress.pal.ed.gov/

Sincerely,
Department of Education

Dear james dziobek,

The status of your FOIA request #23-00957-F has been updated to the following status 'On Hold - Need Info/Clarification'. To log into the DoEd FOIA Portal click on the Application URL below.

https://foiaxpress.pal.ed.gov/

Sincerely,
Department of Education

February 10,2023 RE: FOIARequest No. 23-00957-F: Dear James Dziobek: This letter isin response to your request for information pursuant to the Freedom ofInformation Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552, dated February 6, 2023, and received inthis office on February 7, 2023. You requestedthe following: “ToWhom It May Concern: Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I herebyrequest the following records: Good morning, I would like to receive any andall documents (emails, presentations, internal working documents, meetingnotes) related to selection of Higher Education Loan Authority of the State ofMissouri otherwise known as Mohela as the 'Official servicer of federal studentaid'. I would like documents that discuss the bid process for student loancompanies to bid for official servicer and any documents related to Higher EducationLoan Authority of the State of Missouri otherwise known as Mohela being theservicer for public service loan forgiveness. This request is related to PSLFand Federal Student Aid within US Department of Education if it helps to narrowmy approach.” We are unableto process your request at this time, because your request does not reasonablydescribe the records that you have sought under the FOIA 5 U.S.C. §552(a)(3)(A). In order toprocess your request, we need clarification of the information that yourequested.  The information needed is asfollows: We needadditional fee authorization for 23-00957-F. As written, FSA estimates aminimum of 40 hours of search at the GS-13 level for approximately $2000 incosts. If you want to reduce these costs, you should limit the scope of therequest. There are several ways in which you can do this. For one, you canlimit the date range to just a few weeks surrounding the award of the contract.(We need a date range to process this request anyways, but the more you canlimit it, the less time we will need to take to search). You can alsospecify document custodians. For example, you could limit the search to justthe contracting officer or the contracting officer’s representative. But thebest way to reduce these costs would be to exclude e-mails from the request. “IncludingALL e-mails related to the contract” adds a significant amount of time/costs tothe search efforts. Please note:You also asks for bid documents. Please know that the proposals/bid documentswould be exempt from disclosure and would thus most likely be withheld in theirentirely. If you exclude these documents from your request it would also reducethe search costs. Once we receivethe information, we will assign your request to the appropriate office(s) tosearch for documents responsive to your request. Please respond to this letter by February24, 2023 If you have anyquestions, please contact the FOIA Service Center (FSC) at 202-401-8365 orEDFOIAManager@ed.gov. Sincerely, Elaine Phillips FOIA ServiceCenter Office of theSecretary U.S. Departmentof Education (202) 401-8365FOIA Hotline

Dear james dziobek,

The status of your FOIA request #23-00957-F has been updated to the following status 'In Process'. To log into the DoEd FOIA Portal click on the Application URL below.

https://foiaxpress.pal.ed.gov/

Sincerely,
Department of Education

Hello,

Request 23-00957-F was closed on February 27, 2023. The documents were delivered via email.

Kind regards,

ED FOIA Manager
FOIA Service Center
Office of the Secretary
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Ave SW
Washington, DC 20202-4510
FOIA Hotline (202) 401-8365