Last week, our civics lesson was called, “Homeland Security: Authorization and Appropriation.” We took a look at how Congress must create permission for programs to exist, then it spends the money on ‘em.

Now let’s take a look at some of the spending. Three different spending bills cover all the forms taken by our country’s foreign relations. The House has got them in the pipeline.

One of the biggest spending bills each year is the Department of Defense appropriations bill, and this year’s is no exception. H.R. 5856, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2013, spends just shy of $6,000 per U.S. family on most operations of the military.

Then there’s H.R. 5854, the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2013. It covers the cost of building military installations and paying our substantial debts to our nation’s veterans. The bill for these expenses is just under $1,500 per U.S. family this coming year.

The relationships that our nation maintains when we’re not fighting are paid for in H.R. 5857, The Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2013. The State Department and various related activities of the government’s come to just about $500 per U.S. family.

The total of all of them adds up to just about $8,000 in spending per U.S. family on our foreign relations, from the friendly to the not-so-friendly.

Here are the current votes on each of these bills. Click to vote, comment, learn more, or edit the wiki articles on the bills.