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

The Biden administration is sanctioning seven Russian officials and is adding one government research institute and 13 businesses to its export restrictions, senior administration officials announced this morning.

These sanctions are the first U.S. penalties over the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's poisoning last August after former President Donald Trump's administration declined to act, even though a senior official said today the U.S. intelligence community "assesses with high confidence that officers of Russia's Federal Security Service, FSB, used a nerve agent known as Novichok to poison Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on August 20, 2020."

Because of Trump's inaction, a second official said the U.S. was "in many ways catching up to the EU and the U.K.," both of which sanctioned six individuals and one entity in October. Coordinating with those key U.S. allies makes these sanctions "stronger and more effective, particularly when it comes to Russia," the first official said, because Europe has closer business ties.

But these sanctions have been cast as falling short, particularly after Navalny's supporters circulated a list of Russian officials they called on the West to sanction. But it could be because the U.S. doesn't want to make a domestic political issue in Russia a further drag on relations. Biden is "neither seeking to reset our relations with Russia, nor are we seeking to escalate" with Russia, the first senior official said.

"Our goal is to have a relationship with Russia that is predictable and stable. Where there are opportunities for it to be constructive and it is in our interest to do so, we intend to pursue them," they added. That includes a possible dialogue on "strategic stability," especially nuclear arms control. 

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan

President Joe Biden is expected to announce a major partnership Tuesday afternoon between pharmaceutical giants Merck & Co. and Johnson & Johnson to help produce J&J's single-shot vaccine, a White House official confirms to ABC News. The move, first reported by the Washington Post, will help increase vaccine supply of the single-shot vaccine.

The FDA approved an Emergency Use Authorization for the vaccine Saturday, which triggered the shipment of nearly 3.9 million doses of the vaccine. Of those, 800,000 are expected to go directly to pharmacies.

-ABC News' Justin Gomez

President Biden will have a conference call with Senate Democrats for a second day in a row Tuesday. He will call into their weekly virtual conference lunch. In his final push for his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, the president is upping pressure on lawmakers the get the bill passed. Biden had a meeting with Senate Democrats yesterday including moderate Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., who has become a key vote in the 50-50 split Senate, another key moderate Democrat, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., was also invited to attend, but was unable to because she was traveling.

In the afternoon, Biden will deliver remarks at 4:15 p.m. on the pandemic. Harris will also attend that event.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki will hold a press briefing at 12:30 p.m.

-ABC News' Sarah Kolinovsky

As the COVID-19 relief debate moves forward in the Senate, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Monday night that she is "increasingly convinced" there won't be a compromise on a relief bill.

"I'm becoming increasingly convinced that, regrettably, there is not as much interest as that I would like to see on the Democratic side of the aisle and the White House in trying to come to a compromise," Collins said. "And I don't understand how the White House can describe a bill that passed the House without a single Republican vote as being bipartisan -- what was bipartisan was the opposition to the bill." 

Collins was part of a bipartisan group that helped move the last COVID-19 relief bill through the Senate. But now, Collins said it's "up to Chuck Schumer and the White House whether they are interested in trying to gain some Republican support or not." 

Collins said Democrats are being similarly uncompromising on the minimum wage, which they would like raised to $15. 

"The minimum wage could be brought to the floor as a separate bill and I believe that a $10 minimum wage would pass," Collins said. "That would make life so much better for so many low-income workers and yet the approach that's been taken is all or nothing on 15. I don't understand that."

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin