Biden's 1st 100 days live updates: Senate passes COVID relief bill along party lines

Sen. Mitt Romney returned to the Capitol Monday with a black eye. When reporters asked what happened, he joked that he went to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, where former President Donald Trump and other conservative opponents had gathered this weekend.

"Yeah, I had kind of a tough, tough weekend," he said. "You see that? Look at what I got. I went to CPAC, that was a problem."

In reality, he said he took a fall and was knocked unconscious while he was in Boston with his grandchildren. He was taken to the hospital and given "a lot of stitches" through his eyebrow and lip.

-ABC News' Trish Turner

Sen. Bernie Sanders told reporters Monday night he is determined to fight for the minimum wage increase and will offer an amendment to the budget reconciliation bill.

"To the best of my knowledge there will be a vote on the minimum wage and we'll see what happens but I intend to offer that bill that will raise the minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour and we'll see how the votes go," Sanders said. "There will be a roll call vote and we'll see who is going to vote for it and who is not going to vote for it." 

Sanders will try to force a vote on the minimum wage during the upcoming vote-a-rama on the budget reconciliation bill. His amendment, he said, will most likely add the minimum wage proposal back into the budget bill after the parliamentarian ruled last week that the current minimum wage raise cannot remain in the House-passed bill.

Democrats are under a tight deadline to pass President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan before March 14, when some coronavirus stimulus measures expire, including federally boosted jobless benefits.

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, confirmed that she met in person with Neera Tanden to discuss her nomination to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget, but said she remains undecided on whether she would vote in Tanden's favor.

“I am still doing my assessment,” she said when asked repeatedly if she would support the nominee. 

She also said she has “some more follow-up questions but we had a good conversation.”

Tanden's confirmation came into question last month, when Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced that he would break with his party and vote against Tanden's nomination, citing past tweets with strong language critical of Republican members of Congress and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., many of which were deleted prior to her nomination.

Since then, the list of moderate Republicans opposing Tanden for the role has grown and in the evenly divided Senate, she needs support from a Republican.

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin

The Senate Monday evening voted 64-33 to confirm Miguel Cardona to lead the U.S. Education Department.

Cardona led Connecticut schools as the state's commissioner of education, but also spent time as an elementary school teacher and school principal, according to the Connecticut Department of Education.

He was also the first Latino to serve as education commissioner in the state and was the youngest principal in the state, the Biden transition said when announcing his nomination.

-ABC News' Sophie Tatum