A US national security panel has deadlocked on its review of the sale of United States Steel Corp. to Nippon Steel Corp., a procedural development that opens the door for President Joe Biden to block the transaction.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States sent its findings on Nippon Steel's $15 billion proposed acquisition to Biden, who has 15 days to make a final decision.

Activists have called for Biden to commute the sentence of many or all federal death row inmates for some time. More than 130 civil and human rights groups penned a letter to the president in early December calling on him to commute the sentences of "all individuals on federal death row."

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday commuted the sentences for 37 out of 40 federal inmates on death row, converting them to life in prison without parole, before he hands power to President-elect Donald Trump on Jan.