Bipartisan opposition is growing in Washington to the planned $14.9 billion acquisition of 122-year-old U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel over national security concerns.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) pledged to prevent Japan’s largest steelmaker from purchasing Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel, calling it “absolutely outrageous” because the material is about the country’s national and economic security.”
“I’m gonna do everything I can to block it,” Mr. Fetterman said on Dec. 18 on X, formerly known as Twitter. “It’s absolutely outrageous that U.S. Steel has agreed to sell themselves to a foreign company. Steel is always about security—both our national security and the economic security of our steel communities.
“I am committed to doing anything I can do, using my platform and my position, to block this foreign sale.”
Mr. Fetterman is a former mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, where he lives and where one of U.S. Steel’s first plants still operates. In a video recorded from the roof of his home, across from that facility, Mr. Fetterman vowed not to allow the Steelworkers [union] to “be screwed over or left behind.”
He vowed to collaborate with fellow Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. Bob Casey “to fight like hell to make this right.”
Mr. Fetterman told The Epoch Times that the company didn’t inform either the union or him before making the deal public; he interprets that lack of communication to mean that the company is willing to burn bridges, and that company executives likely have golden parachutes waiting upon their exits.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) agrees with Mr. Fetterman.
“I think we need to give it a very thorough look and intense scrutiny, as a potential threat to our national security,” Mr. Blumenthal told The Epoch Times.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) joined the chorus of lawmakers who have voiced their opposition to the proposed combination, noting that he “warned of this outcome months ago.”
“Today, a critical piece of America’s defense industrial base was auctioned off to foreigners for cash,” Mr. Vance said in a statement. “U.S. Steel announced the sale by celebrating the ‘certain and immediate value’ to be delivered to its shareholders. But rest assured that I will interrogate the long-term implications for the American people, and I will do everything in my power to protect the future of our nation’s security, industry, and workers.”
Mr. Vance told The Epoch Times that it doesn’t make a lot of sense to sell one of the largest U.S. steel producers to a Japanese conglomerate at a time when we are reshoring America’s industrial supply chains.
“I love Japan. It’s a beautiful country,” Mr. Vance said. “It’s got great people and they are one of our most important allies, but it’s still not in America and fundamentally, Japan is in China’s sphere of influence.”
He doesn’t see the move as good for U.S. citizens.
In a Dec. 19 letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who also is the chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, Mr. Vance and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) expressed their concerns about the deal, calling it “a turning point for an icon of American industry.”
They warned that it presents “dire implications” for the nation’s industrial base.
The letter also emphasized national security concerns, arguing that domestic steel production and preserving the U.S. steel sector are “vital” to the country’s national security.
Mr. Vance and Mr. Hawley added that trade protections employed over the past 40 years to enhance the steel industry should facilitate foreign investment that bolsters U.S. output and increases American jobs. However, the latest corporate takeover “is out of step with those goals.”
“Allowing foreign companies to buy out American companies and enjoy our trade protections subverts the very purpose for which those protections were put in place,” the lawmakers said.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) says he doesn’t believe foreign firms should be able to ignore workers and acquire U.S. Steel “behind closed doors.” Instead, Mr. Brown says, a pro-union American firm, such as Cleveland-Cliffs, should buy the U.S. steel manufacturing titan.
“A foreign company should not be able to swoop in, ignore the voices of union workers, and buy a major American steel manufacturer behind closed doors,” he said in a statement. “Nippon and U.S. Steel have insulted American steelworkers by refusing to give them a seat at the table and raised grave concerns about their commitment to the future of the American steel industry.”
Regulatory Review
The sale to the Tokyo-based firm is expected to close in the second or third quarter of 2024, pending approval by U.S. Steel’s shareholders, receipt of customary regulatory approvals, and other customary closing conditions, the company said in a statement. However, the transaction might be delayed by a regulatory review, which was suggested during a daily White House press briefing.“Given this could potentially be a regulatory review, I’m not going to speak to any specifics of this transaction, and will be very careful. But what I can do is speak about it more broadly,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “Steel workers’ commitment to protecting American manufacturing that supports family-sustaining union jobs, it’s something that the President supports.”
She added that President Biden is committed to competition, because it means lower costs for consumers and higher wages for workers.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) also expects Congress to take a closer look at the deal before it happens.
“U.S. Steel has been an iconic American company for many decades,” Mr. Kelly told The Epoch Times. “Steel is important for our national security, so it'll go through a process and ultimately, I imagine that Congress will have to make a decision.”
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) says he’s concerned about the deal.
“The steel industry is an all-American industry and critical for American manufacturing,” Mr. Peters told The Epoch Times. “Just on the face of it, clearly, it’s not a positive.”
