Formal reprimands, once rare, dominated the chamber’s agenda this week, prompting lawmakers in both parties to call for changes to the way the House handles such actions.

“You need this renewal. You need new figures who are untouched, who were never part of these awful power games,” the columnist Lydia Polgreen argues.

The final agreement, with no direct mention of the fossil fuels dangerously heating Earth, was a victory for countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia, diplomats said.