Vice President Kamala Harris is aligning with President Joe Biden in stating the U.S. Steel Corporation should remain owned and operated by the United States, another blow to the proposed sale of the company to Japanese-owned Nippon Steel. 

During a Labor Day event in Pittsburgh on Monday, Harris stated it is “vital for our nation to maintain strong American steel companies” and vowed to strengthen America’s manufacturing sector.

“And I couldn’t agree more with President Biden — U.S. Steel should remain American-owned and American-operated, and I will always have the back of America’s steelworkers and all of America’s workers,” Harris said. 

Harris had not disclosed her stance on the deal. Biden has pledged that U.S. Steel would remain domestically owned, although he hasn’t worked to block the deal. Harris’s opponent, former President Donald Trump, has also called for the acquisition to be called off. 

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Since the deal was announced in December, the bid by Nippon Steel to buy the U.S. company has faced bipartisan opposition, including from the United Steelworkers union, which is based in Pennsylvania, a purple state. The union said a foreign company’s acquisition of an American steel company could have national security implications and expressed concerns that the purchase could lead to layoffs or the closing of plants. 

A president can block foreign transactions of U.S. companies on national security grounds, but there would have to be a determination of a threat before that could happen. It’s unclear whether an acquisition led by Japan, an ally of the U.S., would be a national security concern.