Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and J.D. Vance (R-OH) are demanding President Joe Biden block Japan’s Nippon Steel Corporation from buying United States Steel Corporation.
As Breitbart News reported in December, executives with U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel Corporation announced a nearly $15 billion deal, which would have the iconic American steel giant sold off to the Japanese company.
In a letter, Hawley, Rubio, and Vance tell Biden he must live up to his prior statements suggesting his opposition to the foreign acquisition of U.S. Steel by blocking the deal.
“For weeks you have maintained that ‘it is vital for [U.S. Steel] to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated,'” they write:
You have since asserted that it “should remain an American company . . . American-owned and American-operated.” These statements amount to wishes, not declarations, and belie your authority as President of the United States. [Emphasis added]
By law you possess the authority to block the sale of U.S. Steel unilaterally under the Defense Production Act, 50 U.S.C. § 4565(d), or the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, 50 U.S.C. § 1702(a), when a national emergency is declared. You may exercise these powers now. Pronouncements about what you consider “vital” or what you think “should” happen to U.S. Steel are worthless unless you act to keep U.S. Steel under American control. [Emphasis added]
Your predecessor displayed no such reticence. President Trump exercised his powers to suspend or prohibit foreign transactions unilaterally more than any other president. He forced divestitures to safeguard the American semiconductor industry and protect Americans’ data from firms linked to foreign adversaries. He has already declared that he would block the sale of U.S. Steel. [Emphasis added]
We urge you to summon the courage to do the right thing. Declare whether you will exercise your presidential authority to prohibit or suspend the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon. [Emphasis added]
The letter comes after Vance, along with Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), John Fetterman (D-PA), and Bob Casey (D-PA), warned of Nippon Steel’s deep ties to China.
Nippon Steel lists multiple “manufacturing bases” in China on its site, including in the cities of Suzhou and Wuhan. Elsewhere in Asia, Nippon has plants in Brunei, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The sale of U.S. Steel, founded in 1901 by Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and Charles Schwab, to Nippon Steel is significant, as the steelmaker served a critical role in the nation’s “Arsenal of Democracy” during WWII.
Among several American companies that helped the Allies defeat the Axis Powers, which included Imperial Japan, U.S. Steel made the U.S. the world’s largest steel producer during the war, with Pennsylvania becoming the nation’s steel capital.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
