Concerns Over U.S. Steel Sale Raised By Federal Lawmakers, President

President Joe Biden and federal lawmakers, have voiced opposition or concern over the proposed $14.9 billion acquisition of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel Corporation

The deal was announced in December, and it sparked a bipartisan pushback over national economic security and U.S. supply chain worries.

U.S. senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman, both Democrats representing Pennsylvania, have urged the federal government to block the proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel.

“Allowing for the ownership of a major industrial participant in infrastructure and clean energy investments to be acquired by a foreign entity would be a step backwards in our commitment to supply chain integrity and economic security,” the senators wrote in a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican, signed onto a letter with a bipartisan group of 45 members of Congress earlier this year urging the Biden Administration to ensure a comprehensive regulatory review of Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel.

“As you know, the union representing the U.S. Steel workforce, the United Steelworkers (USW), has raised significant concerns about Nippon’s planned acquisition of U.S. Steel, including a failure by both parties to consult USW in the process,” the letter read.

On Thursday morning, the Associated Press reported President Joe Biden was expected to announce opposition to the planned sale.

“U.S. Steel has been an iconic American steel company for more than a century, and it is vital for it to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated,” Biden’s statement said.

A White House spokesperson declined to comment Wednesday on the president’s stance.

U.S. Steel operates a facility in Falls Township that finishes cold-rolled steel products for various industries. It is believed to employ about 100 people.

U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel previously called the deal a strategic move to meet the growing demand for high-grade steel globally.

The United Steelworkers Union has criticized U.S. Steel’s decision as indicative of a “greedy, shortsighted attitude.”

Nippon Steel is a global steel giant that already has operations in the U.S. and over 100,000 employees worldwide.

U.S. Steel once had an outsized influence in Bucks County due to the large Fairless Works complex, which once employed more than 5,000 people. Most of the complex has been sold off and is being redeveloped for warehouse uses.

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