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

Following a 15-minute call with Biden and Senate Democrats on Tuesday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced the Senate could vote on the $1.9 COVID-19 relief bill "as soon as tomorrow," though Democratic sources are now saying it will likely be Thursday.

Schumer said he expected "a hearty debate" and "some late nights" during the 20-hour Senate session but made the bold prediction: "We'll have the votes we need to pass the bill." 

Biden, Schumer said, "made his pitch" to the caucus "and he said we need to pass this bill and pass it soon."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans will be "fighting in every way we can" to block the COVID-19 relief bill, during his weekly press conference Tuesday afternoon.

"It is my hope that at the end Senate Republicans will unanimously oppose it," McConnell said.

He blamed the Biden administration for its alleged disinterest in finding a bipartisan approach. 

"We think this package should have been negotiated on a bipartisan basis like the last five bills were done," McConnell said. "Instead the new administration made a conscious decision to jam us."  

-ABC News' Trish Turner and Allison Pecorin

The Senate confirmed Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo to serve as Secretary of Commerce by a vote of 84-15 on Tuesday.

Raimondo is the first female governor of Rhode Island and former general treasurer of the state. The Oxford, Harvard and Yale graduate is a native of Smithfield, Rhode Island, and as general treasurer is credited with revamping the state’s pension system. 

The former Rhode Island governor has been praised for the way the smallest state in the country has dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic, but she has faced criticism over the vaccine rollout. Her nomination was briefly put on hold by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who voiced concerns over how the commerce secretary would handle Chinese telecom company Huawei. 

Schumer filed cloture on the nomination and the Senate proceeded to her vote today. She clarified her stance on the company, saying there is “no reason” to lift it from the Commerce Department’s entity list, which is a restricted trade list.

-ABC News' Luke Barr and Allison Pecorin

Biden, attending a Democratic Senate caucus virtual lunch Tuesday afternoon, urged Democrats to come together and support his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 bill and to reject amendments that might change the bill and imperil its passage, according to Democratic sources.

This is part of the president's latest push to get his COVID-19 relief bill passed as it's expected to be voted on in the Senate this week.

-ABC News' Trish Turner

White House press secretary Jen Psaki discussed at the White House press briefing U.S. sanctions reported Tuesday morning of seven "senior" Russian officials and adding one government research institute and 13 businesses to export restrictions. The sanctions are over the Russian government's poisoning and detention of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

"As a demonstration of our Transatlantic unity and cooperation with partners over the ocean, many of the actions we are taking mirror the steps the EU took in October and match additional EU measures being taken today," Psaki said. "We also reiterate our call for the Russian government to immediately and unconditionally release Mr. Navalny."

Psaki said the sanctions are not a "silver bullet" that will repair or end the "challenging relationship" with Russia. She also did not rule out further actions after additional review of the Russian government's "concerning behavior."

"There is an ongoing review...we reserve the right to take any additional actions at the conclusion of that review, and just reiterating that the tone and the tenor and the type of relationship that this president intends to have with President Putin will be quite different from the last administration," Psaki said.