Three ISG assembly members will make a controversial lobbying trip to Washington, D.C., later this month, despite objections by some of their colleagues who said that the trip was too expensive and faced widespread student opposition.

More than $2,800 had been appropriated last semester for the three-day trip to allow ISG members Brian Colgan, Andrew Erskine and Cate Parkin to meet with dozens of legislators in support of a bill that would save students millions of dollars in federal financial aid fees.

Although the money for the trip was approved last spring, several new assembly members raised objections last week that the trip should be canceled in light of ISG budget concerns and student opposition.

Since the $1 student fee supporting ISG's budget was abolished in a spring referendum, ISG treasurer Josh Thornton said the money ISG has left — about $45,000, according to Thornton — should be saved.

"Were there to be a really large issue to push past students (potentially by the administration), we need to have every penny possible to try and combat that," Thornton said.

Others criticized the high cost of the trip, citing the members would stay in the $160-per-night Hawthorne Suites Hotel.

"If this is volunteer work, then I'd like to sign up," said ISG member Andrew Fitzgerald.

Erskine said the trip accommodations were found and purchased through a travel agent, as required by University regulations, and cheaper hotels would be farther away from downtown D.C. — meaning greater transportation costs.

"You can't pay a lower rate than what we pay," he said.

Fitzgerald, though, said after a five-minute internet search, he found D.C. hotels that charge about $90 per night.

"I find it odd that a travel agent can't find a place that's about half (of the Hawthorne's rate)," he said.

Current appropriations chair J.D. Grom said "there was no foul play in ... the way (the money) was appropriated" in the spring.

A second concern was that prior lobbying trips to Washington, D.C., were seen by much of the student body as frivolous vacation trips paid for with student fees.

The last three years that ISG has gone on this trip there's always been a student outcry against it, Fitzgerald said.

"Students want to see something done that is rather tangible," said assembly member Derek Chan.

However, a motion to overturn the appropriations request was narrowly defeated by the ISG assembly last week.

Erskine said the trip was "incredibly timely," as the three plan to meet with key legislators to support H.R. 3180, which would eliminate a financial aid fee. Students at the University would save $4.5 million if the proposal was passed, Erskine said.

The three have appointments to meet with dozens of legislators — along with their staffers — who could determine whether the bill passes or fails, he said.

"There's a lot of mystique about a Washington, D.C., trip ... where we just screw off," Erskine said. "That's not what happens."

In addition, Erskine said the budget of this semester's trip has been cut 60 percent from previous trips to the nation's capital. The number of people going was also reduced from the traditional four ISG members to three, he said.

"I have done everything I could to be fiscally responsible and still do something that students want," Erskine said.

Assembly members also said it wasn't fair to suddenly make an 11th-hour reconsideration of a funding promise made to the student lobbyists last spring.

"We appropriated this last spring," Grom said. "It's unfair to Andrew (Erskine) to withhold this."

"I'm not cool with waiting and waiting and waiting and getting screwed on something," Erskine said.

The two-day delay in purchasing the plane tickets while assembly members reviewed the trip cost ISG $400 more for the plane tickets, he said.

A follow-up trip to Washington, D.C., is planned for next spring; however, the assembly might revoke some or all funding for that trip at a later time.

"We may say 'no,'" said assembly member Dave Fried.