Here's how New Hampshire's members of Congress voted in the week ending Friday.

House

Car, truck vouchers: Voting 298 for and 119 against, the House on Tuesday passed a bill (HR 2751) enabling consumers to trade their car or truck for a government voucher worth $3,500 to $4,500 to be used to help buy or lease a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle - foreign or domestic. The exact value of the voucher would depend on the new vehicle's fuel efficiency. The government would destroy the traded-in vehicles. Congressional auditors predict the bill would spur 600,000 vehicle sales and leases. The bill is now before the Senate.

Rep. Donald Manzullo, a Democrat from Illinois, said: "Stimulating sales is the only way to get the auto industry back on its feet - not further top-down infusions of money. . . . The bill gets the American people involved because it's bottom-up. It sets the fire of manufacturing."

Rep. Eric Cantor, a Republican from Virginia, opposed the bill because it disallowed vouchers for acquiring more fuel-efficient used vehicles. "Even after a generous credit, for many American families a new car is financially out of reach," he said.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Reps. Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes, both Democrats.

Foreign affairs budget: Voting 235 for and 187 against, the House on Wednesday authorized a $40.6 billion, two-year foreign-affairs budget (HR 2410) that would fund Department of State and Peace Corps operating expenses, a major expansion of the Foreign Service and a broad range of U.S. non-military policies and programs overseas.

In part, the bill adds 1,500 diplomats and staff to the Foreign Service and stations 300 additional Foreign Service personnel in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The bill also increases the number of Americans studying abroad; expands programs that bring foreign youths to the United States for high school or college; funds international broadcasting programs and bolsters Radio Free Asia; authorizes $654 million to bring the U.S. up-to-date in its United Nations dues, and requires gay partners of U.S. diplomats to receive benefits equal to those of diplomats' spouses.

Additionally, the bill orders the first overhaul of U.S. foreign aid since 1961; requires quadrennial State Department reviews of U.S. foreign operations; bolsters arms-control and nuclear non-proliferation programs; revamps export controls; expands protections for U.S. intellectual property and supports U.N. peacekeeping missions in Darfur, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Rep. Gary Ackerman, a Democrat from New York, said "it is the Foreign Service that lives always full-time out in the ugly and dangerous parts of the world representing our interests, building alliances, monitoring and reporting on events that may affect our security and helping to defuse crises and tensions before they sometimes burst into armed conflict or war."

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican from Florida, said: "In trying to justify the enormous spending increases in this bill, supporters paint a picture of a hollowed-out shell of a State Department suffering from years of neglect." Yet research shows "funding for the State Department and related agencies doubled from fiscal year 2000 through 2008."

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Shea-Porter, Hodes.

Dispute over Iran: Voting 174 for and 250 against, the House on Wednesday defeated a Republican motion to scrap the entire foreign affairs bill (HR 2410, above) and replace it with a measure using international economic sanctions to block foreign investments and deliveries of refined-oil products that help sustain Iran's nuclear programs.

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