The Biden administration is likely to delay a final decision on whether to block the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel of Japan until after the election, slowing a process that has been caught up in presidential politics, according to people familiar with the matter.

Top Democrats and Republicans, including President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump, have been in agreement that Nippon’s $15 billion bid to take over U.S. Steel should not move forward and that the company should remain American owned and operated.

However, the prospect that the deal would be blocked before the election drew backlash from business groups and legal experts who feared that political interests were tainting a process that is intended to be focused on national security.

A White House spokeswoman said in a statement that a decision to block the deal was never “imminent” because the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which has been reviewing the transaction, has not provided Mr. Biden with a recommendation. She emphasized that he continued to want U.S. Steel to remain American owned.

“The president’s position is that it is vital for U.S. Steel to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated,” said Saloni Sharma, the spokeswoman. “The president told our steelworkers he has their backs, and he meant it.”

The transaction was announced in December and set off a public battle between the steelworkers union, which opposes the deal, and U.S. Steel, which said the bid was a financial lifeline for the company. U.S. Steel executives have warned that if the bid is deal is blocked, it might have to cut jobs and relocate its headquarters out of Pennsylvania. .