Many Democrats expected that Mr. Biden would be far more aggressive, negating the need for action by Congress. Instead, they have continued to press for harsher action and a wholesale rethinking of the American stance toward the Saudis.

“I don’t think that they have been sufficiently attuned to the fundamental shift that members of Congress of both parties want in the U.S.-Saudi relationship,” said Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, an outspoken voice on the issue. “They’re still stuck in an old paradigm where they’re not willing to take the corrective, effective steps, and I don’t understand what is the constraint.”…

Representative Andy Kim, Democrat of New Jersey, the co-author of the measure to impose a travel ban on Prince Mohammed, said that he struggled to understand why the administration released a report focused on the crown prince but did not ultimately punish him. Representative Tom Malinowski, another New Jersey Democrat who was the top human rights diplomat in the Obama administration, led efforts to write the bill.