White House spokeswoman Saloni Sharma disputed that there had been a change of plans, saying an announcement was never imminent and that the president remains committed to waiting for a recommendation from an interagency review board, as the law requires.
The delay of any announcement, however, comes as investors, Pennsylvania Democrats, and some members of the steelworkers’ union warned that the deal’s collapse could spark an economic calamity for Pennsylvania’s beleaguered steel belt.
“People certainly don’t think we’re where we were Tuesday of last week. Everybody was like: ‘We’re dead. It’s over. We’re done.’ There’s definitely a sense we’ll probably get a chance to fight til November 5th. What happens Nov. 6 is still up in the air,” said one US Steel shareholder, who supports the merger and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a politically controversial subject.
The United Steelworkers union, which endorsed Biden for reelection and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in her presidential bid, has opposed the transaction from the outset.
White House officials have said they are waiting for a recommendation from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the interagency board that reviews foreign transactions for national security implications. The panel is chaired by Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and includes six other Biden cabinet secretaries as well as other political appointees who take direction from the president.
Since March, Biden has publicly opposed US Steel being owned by a foreign firm.
“The president’s position is that it is vital for US Steel to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated. The President told our steelworkers he has their backs, and he meant it,” Sharma said in a written reply. “As we made clear last week, we have not received any recommendation from CFIUS.”
The proposed corporate acquisition has assumed outsize importance given its potential political impact on the 2024 election.
Biden’s opposition to Nippon Steel’s acquisition of the once-iconic US Steel aligned with the position of the United Steelworkers union. David McCall, president of the labor organization, has described the deal as a threat to his members’ long-term job prospects and pension security.
But a move that the White House may have hoped would bolster its chances of winning Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes has instead triggered significant opposition among Democrats in western Pennsylvania’s steel belt.
“The White House was prepared to act precipitously and I think they were surprised by the pushback they got from all quarters,” said one person close to the process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
On Thursday, USW leadership told its members that Nippon Steel would favor US Steel’s nonunion operations in Arkansas rather than its unionized workforce that operates Pennsylvania’s traditional blast furnaces.
But in towns near Pittsburgh, many steelworkers and their neighbors were upset by word of the president’s apparent plan to kill the deal, which they see as the best chance for US Steel’s outdated mills to survive.
“Nobody from his administration, or any of the administrations, have bothered to come to talk to the workers, the ones that are going to be affected by this,” said Democrat Chris Kelly, mayor of West Mifflin, Pa., home to one of the US Steel facilities that Nippon Steel has pledged to modernize.
Without Nippon Steel’s cash, US Steel has warned that it might close some of its aging facilities in the Mon Valley. The loss of such an important corporate employer and taxpayer would result in tax increases on other businesses or a reduction in public services, he said.
“Everybody in the country is not one issue. But when you’re at a swing state, right now the biggest issue in this state is US Steel. It could cost the election in Pennsylvania,” Kelly said.
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Publish date : 2024-09-13 09:35:00
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