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

A new Republican Party-led bill seeks to ban members from flying flags of foreign nations on the floor of the House of Representatives, after Democrats waved Ukrainian flags as a long-awaited foreign aid bill passed.

“Only one flag should be on display on the floor of the House: ours,” said Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., the bill’s author. The legislation has 30 Republican co-sponsors.

When the House of Representatives approved about $60 billion for Ukraine in a 311-112 vote last week, House Democrats triumphantly waved their blue and yellow flags and cheered the bill that could 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 take to the microphone and shout “put those d*** flags away” and Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y., who presided over the vote, to tell the Democrats their stunt was “inappropriate.”

They were reminded that “it is a violation of decency to wave flags on the floor.”

The flag-waving sparked a firestorm from hardline conservatives, with Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., claiming House members showed they “care more about Ukraine than you do.”

“This is the United States House of Representatives led by Speaker Mike Johnson. Democrats are celebrating his total capitulation without victory in securing our border. #MTV,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., co-sponsor of the motion to evict, wrote on X.

He later wrote that he was fined for taking a video on the House floor, where photos 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 remove this video post. Mike Johnson would like very much to remember this betrayal of America.”

Johnson then intervened to overturn the fine. “When we saw Representative Massie’s tweet, our team contacted the Sergeant at Arms. I disagree with this assessment and no fine will be imposed on Representative Massie,” the speaker wrote on X.

“Ukrainian flags are flying 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 we happily work to secure Ukraine’s borders, not our own.”

Some Republicans were angry that Ukraine’s funding had gone without border security measures, after Johnson said for months that he would not secure Ukraine’s border before the US’s.

“For the swamp, it’s Ukraine first and America last,” said Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C. said about the flag waving at X. ‘Happily waving Ukrainian flags as the American people suffer from Biden’s border invasion.’

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

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

“I remember as a 12-year-old waking up in downtown Oakland and realizing that our car had been broken into and the $1.50 I was counting on to buy a breakfast sandwich at McDonald’s had been stolen,” Shanahan said . “It is heartbreaking to see our leaders sending $60 billion to Ukraine today while waving another country’s flag. What about Americans?’

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

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

The package, consisting of three separate relief bills, was voted on, in addition to a fourth “sidecar” that includes a possible TikTok ban and a vehicle to repurpose seized Russian assets for Ukraine.

The Ukrainian bill includes $23 billion to replenish U.S. supplies depleted by the fight in Russia. About $11 billion would go to U.S. military operations in the region and $14 billion would go toward the purchase of advanced weapons systems.

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

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

The president has broad control over the terms of the loan and could forgive half of it after November 15, 2024, and the other 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 Israeli security law will provide $4 billion to supplement Israel’s Iron Dome Missile Defense system and billions more for weapons systems, artillery and ammunition, as well as another $2.4 billion for U.S. operations in the region.

Nine billion dollars of that bill will go to humanitarian aid for the Palestinians in Gaza.

A fourth bill includes several measures, such as requiring TikTok to be divested from Chinese parent company ByteDance, an effort to obtain seized Russian assets and a military aid loan program to Ukraine.

The House of Representatives has already passed a bill to force ByteDance to divest TikTok, but the new comprehensive legislation would give TikTok a year instead of six months to separate from China.

Tying the measure to foreign aid will force the Senate to vote on it, after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer struggled to get the measure to the Senate floor.

The so-called ‘sidecar bill’ also includes a provision related to the REPO law, which means that it would seize Russian assets that have so far only been frozen and repurpose them for Ukraine, and a provision related to would have on the Lend-Lease Act, which would require Ukraine to return U.S. military assets not destroyed in the war.

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

Kiev has already used the weapon twice to strike deep behind Russian lines. Last week, Kiev bombed a Russian military airfield in Crimea and overnight Russian forces in another occupied territory.

The new missiles give Ukraine almost double the strike distance – up to 300 kilometers – that it had with the mid-range version of the weapon it received from the US last October.

More long-range missiles are expected to be shipped 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 US 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 ammunition, additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems, 155-millimeter artillery ammunition, TOW and Javelin anti-tank ammunition, demolition weapons and other weapons that can be immediately deployed to the battlefield, officials told Reuters .