Republican bill would BAN lawmakers from waving foreign flags on the House floor after Democrats whipped out Ukrainian flags to celebrate passage of $95 billion foreign aid package

A new GOP-led bill seeks to ban members from flying any foreign nation's flags on the House floor after Democrats waved Ukrainian flags as a long-awaited foreign aid bill passed. 

'On the Floor of the House, there should be only one flag on display: ours,' Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., the author of the bill, said. The legislation has 30 Republican co-sponsors. 

As the House in a 311-112 vote passed some $60 billion for Ukraine last week, House Democrats triumphantly flapped their blue-and-yellow flags and cheered at the bill that may cost Speaker Mike Johnson his job. 

A small handful of Republicans also held Ukrainian flags. 

The move prompted Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., to go up to the microphone and shout 'put those d*** flags away' and Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y., who presided over the vote, to tell Democrats their stunt was 'inappropriate.'

A new GOP-led bill seeks to ban members from flying any foreign nation's flags on the House floor after Democrats waved Ukrainian flags as a long-awaited foreign aid bill passed

'On the Floor of the House, there should be only one flag on display: ours,' Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., the author of the bill, said. The legislation has 30 Republican co-sponsors

A new GOP-led bill seeks to ban members from flying any foreign nation's flags on the House floor after Democrats waved Ukrainian flags as a long-awaited foreign aid bill passed

They were reminded 'it is a violation of decorum to wave flags on the floor.'

The flag-waving prompted a firestorm from hardline conservatives, with Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., claiming House members were showing they care 'more about Ukraine than you.'

'This is the U.S. House of Representatives under the direction of Speaker Mike Johnson. Democrats are celebrating his total capitulation with no victory for securing our border. #MTV,' Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., a co-sponsor of the motion to vacate, wrote on X.

Later he wrote that he'd been fined for taking a video on the House floor, where pictures and videos are prohibited. 

'Instead of fining democrats for waving flags, the House Sergeant at Arms just called and said I will be fined $500 if I don’t delete this video post. Mike Johnson really wants to memory hole this betrayal of America.'

Johnson then intervened to undo the fine. 

'Upon viewing Rep. Massie’s tweet, our team reached out to the Sergeant at Arms. I do not agree with this assessment and there will be no fine imposed on Rep. Massie,' the speaker wrote on X. 

'Ukrainian flags fly in the chamber of the UNITED STATES House of Representatives as they vote to send more of your hard-earned money to a corrupt foreign regime,' Sen Rand Paul, R-Ky., said in a post on X Saturday. 'And just like that they shout 'UKRAINE! UKRAINE!' while happily working to secure Ukraine's borders, not ours.' 

Some Republicans were upset that Ukraine funding had passed without border security measures, after months of Johnson saying he would not secure Ukraine's border before the U.S. one. 

'For the Swamp, it's Ukraine First and America Last,' Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C. said of the flag waving on X. 'Gleefully waving Ukrainian flags as the American people suffer under Biden's border invasion.' 

'Too much Ukraine. Not enough USA,' Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, wrote on X along with a video of the gleeful Democrats. 

Even Nicole Shanahan, the running mate of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., derided the display on X. 

'I remember as a 12 year old waking up in downtown Oakland and realizing our car had been broken into and the $1.50 I was relying on to buy a McDonald's breakfast sandwich had been stolen,' Shanahan said. 

'Watching our leadership today send $60B to Ukraine while waving another nation's flag is gut-wrenching. What about Americans?' 

The Ukraine aid was part of a foreign aid package for U.S. allies around the world that has since been signed into law by President Biden. 

The package in total gives $26 billion to Israel, $60.8 billion to Ukraine and $8 billion to the Indo-Pacific through a combination of military and humanitarian aid. 

The package consisting of three separate aid bills was voted on alongside a fourth 'side car' that includes a potential TikTok ban and a vehicle to repurpose seized Russian assets for Ukraine. 

The Ukraine bill includes $23 billion for replenishing U.S. stockpiles that have been depleted for the fight in Russia. Some $11 billion would go to U.S. military operations in the region and $14 billion would go to procuring advanced weapons systems. 

Another $26 million would go to oversight and accountability of equipment given to Ukraine.

Two separate economic assistance funds worth $7.85 billion and $1.58 billion would also be offered to Ukraine under a loan structure. 

The president has wide authority over the terms of the loan, and could forgive half of it after November 15, 2024 and half after January 1, 2026.

The first tranche of weapons - long-range missiles, ammunition, drones and vehicles - is expected to arrive in Ukraine within days.  

The Israel security bill will offer $4 billion to replenish Israel's Iron Dome Missile Defense system and billions more for weapons systems, artillery and munitions, as well as an additional $2.4 billion for U.S. operations in the region.

Nine billion dollars in that bill goes to humanitarian relief for Palestinians in Gaza.

A fourth bill includes several measures such as requiring TikTok divest from its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance, an effort to obtain seized Russian assets and a lend-lease program for military aid to Ukraine.

The House already passed a bill to force ByteDance to divest TikTok, but the new catch-all legislation would give TikTok a year rather than six months to separate itself from China. 

Attaching the measure to the foreign aid will force the Senate to vote on it, after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has dragged his feet in putting it on the Senate floor. 

The so-called 'side car' bill also includes a provision involving the REPO Act, meaning it would seize Russian assets that until now have only been frozen and repurpose them for Ukraine, and one that would involve the Lend-Lease Act, which would require Ukraine to give back U.S. military assets that are not destroyed in war.

The new round of aid comes as it was revealed the Biden administration last month secretly shipped long-range missiles to Ukraine for the first time.

Kyiv has already used the weapon twice to strike deep behind Russian lines, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight.

The new missiles give Ukraine nearly double the striking distance - up to 190 miles - that it had with the mid-range version of the weapon that it received from the U.S. last October.

More long-range missiles are expected to be sent as part of the latest aid package.

Biden approved delivery of the long-range Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, in early March, and the U.S. included a 'significant' number of them in a $300 million aid package announced at the time, a US official said.

The aid package also includes Bradley fighting vehicles, Stinger air defense munitions, additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems, 155 millimeter artillery ammunition, TOW and Javelin anti-tank munitions, demolition weaponry and other weapons that can immediately be put to use on the battlefield, officials told Reuters.