In a letter sent Tuesday to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Republican senators said the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) should block the sale. 

“[CFIUS] can and should block the acquisition of U.S. Steel by NSC, a company whose allegiances clearly lie with a foreign state and whose record in the United States is deeply flawed,” Sens. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wrote. 

CFIUS is a panel chaired by the Treasury secretary that has the power to block the sale of U.S. businesses to foreign firms if the acquisition would threaten national security. 

The senators said the deal was too focused on making money for shareholders and didn’t consider the full range of economic implications. 

“The transaction was not the product of careful deliberation over stakeholder interests, but rather the result of an auction to maximize shareholder returns,” they wrote. 

The Treasury Department declined to comment to The Hill on the feasibility of the deal or what a CFIUS approval process would entail for Nippon to turn U.S. Steel into a subsidiary. 

Democrats are also pushing back against the acquisition that would see the world’s fourth-largest steelmaker subsume the 27th-largest. 

“This is a major blow to the American steel industry which has been instrumental in making us the superpower of the world and a direct threat to our national security,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said in a Tuesday statement.

“We must be doing everything we can to prevent any further deterioration of American ownership.” 

The Hill’s Tobias Burns has more here.