U.S. Department of Education, OCFO, Contracts & Purchasing Operations, Support Services Group, 7th & D Street, SW, Room 3616, ROB-3, Washington, DC 20202-4443

R -- EDITORIAL SERVICES POC Carolyn S Dickens, Contract Specialist, 202-708-8560 Notice of Availability of Draft Statement of Work. The U.S. Department of Education(ED) has a requirement to prepare prompt and thorough responses to correspondence from the general public concerning financial assistance programs for postsecondary students. In the past, ED's Public Inquiry Contract (PIC) has prepared these responses in addition to its other duties, which include answering telephone inquiries received through the toll-free telephone line at ED's Federal Student Aid Information Center (FSAIC). ED has decided to seperate the PIC's functions into two separate contracts. The PIC will continue to answer correspondence concerning defaulted student loans ED holds, handle telephone lines at the FSAIC, and mail bulk orders of ED informational materials, among other functions. The new Editorial Services contract will prepare the remainder of correspondence ED receives and perform other editorial tasks. Potential offerors are invited to review the draft statement of work. The draft statement of work will be announced on or about 2/23/98. The document will be available on the OCFO Web site at http://ocfo.ed.gov under Contracts Information. For technical questions only on the OCFO Web, contact Sharon Masciana at 202-708-7665. For questions relating to actual document posting call the contract specialist listed above. With this posting the Department is requesting public comments and advice on the content, time schedule, feasibility and other aspects of this draft statement of work. Please submit your comments via e-mail to Carolyn_Dickens@ed.gov or Fax (if less than 15 pages) to 202-708-9964, or by mail to the attention of Carolyn Dickens, U.S. Department of Education, Contracts Purchasing Operations, ROB-3, Room 3624/MS 4446, 7th & D Streets, SW, Washington, DC 20202-4447. All comments ar due by COB March 9, 1998. THIS IS NOT A SYNOPSIS OF SOLICITATION. At the time a solicitation synopsis is released, potential offerors may request a copy of the actual solicitation. (0035)

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