This report provides the interim budget plan of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) for fiscal year 2000. It reviews factors influencing OSFA's budget request, including legislative requirements, recent accomplishments, the need to maintain both the Direct Loan and Federal Family Education Loan programs, near-term challenges (such as the improvement of customer service, reduction in the overall cost of delivering student aid, and the transition to a performance-based organization), increased workload projections, and the potential impact of Title IV costs. The report then discusses OSFA's interim budget request, focusing on the funding of basic operations and investments to support the transition to a performance-based organization. Two appendixes provide a description of automated data processing activities and OSFA obligations by object classification. (MDM)