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Mr. Mitchell:

 

This email acknowledges receipt of your January 9, 2022, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (5 U.S.C. § 552) request received by the U.S. Department of State, Office of Information Programs and Services on January 10, 2022, regarding an electronic copy of one (1) U.S. Office of Personnel Management Standard Form 61 APPOINTMENT AFFIDAVITS duly administered and signed by Mr. Anthony J. Blinken as U.S. Secretary of State.  Unless you advise otherwise, we will treat as non-responsive any compilations of publicly available news reports and any publicly available documents not created by the U.S. government, such as mass-distribution emails from news media.  This Office assigned your request the subject reference number and placed it in the complex processing track where it will be processed as quickly as possible.  See 22 CFR § 171.11(h).

 

This Office will not be able to respond within the 20 days provided by the statute due to “unusual circumstances.”  See 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(B)(i)-(iii).  In this instance, the unusual circumstances include the need to search for and collect requested records from other Department offices or Foreign Service posts.

 

If you have any questions regarding your request, would like to narrow the scope or arrange an alternative time frame to speed its processing, or would like an estimated date of completion, please contact our FOIA Requester Service Center or our FOIA Public Liaison by email at FOIAstatus@state.gov or telephone at 202-261-8484.  Additionally, you may contact the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) at the National Archives and Records Administration to inquire about the FOIA mediation services they offer.  The contact information for OGIS is as follows: Office of Government Information Services, National Archives and Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS, College Park, Maryland 20740-6001, email at ogis@nara.gov; telephone at 202-741-5770; toll free at 1-877-684-6448; or facsimile at 202-741-5769.

 

 

**THIS EMAIL BOX IS NOT MONITORED, PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL.**