Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII)

Rating Overview

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) is Medium Risk.

Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (HII) is High Risk. The company yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders. The company implements race and identity-based policies that replace merit, excellence, and integrity with preferential treatment and outcomes. The company embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues. This approach fails to safeguard free exercise, free speech, and free enterprise.

Rating Criteria

Corporate Weaponization Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Cancellations	Lower Risk
Discriminatory Philanthropy	High Risk
Employment Protection	High Risk

Corporate Weaponization ⓘ

Corporate Governance and Public Policy Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Advocacy Bias	High Risk
Funding	Medium Risk
Political Actions	Lower Risk

Corporate Governance and Public Policy ⓘ

Rating Criteria Detail

Criteria Risk Level Rationale

Corporate Weaponization

Criteria:

Has canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, fired an employee in September 2020 after the employee refused to take off a “Trump 2020” ballcap during a safety meeting. The company stated that the firing was related to the enforcement of workplace political-activity rules, not support for or opposition to a particular candidate or election. Newport News Shipbuilding said it prohibits “political campaign or partisan political activities on company property,” including campaign-branded apparel such as a “Trump 2020” hat, and stated that the policy had been in place since 2005 (1)(2)(3)(4). The company formerly recruited employees based on sexual identity issues and discriminated against vendors that did not promote certain SOGI policies. However, in May 2025, HII updated its Code of Ethics and Business Conduct, removing DEI-related language regarding employment opportunities to “ensure compliance with Executive Orders.” HII encourages its suppliers to adhere to its Code of Ethics in its 2025 Supplier Code of Conduct, which includes compliance with non-discrimination policies in alignment with Executive Orders opposing DEI (5)(6)(8)(9)(10). The company has not canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors based on political views or religious beliefs (11).

Criteria:

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

HII’s HRC 2025 CEI rating indicates the company will not donate to non-religious charities unless they embrace controversial sexual identity policies (1)(2). The company does not appear to discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or beliefs (3).

Criteria:

Employment policies fail to protect against viewpoint or other discrimination and/or are ideological in nature.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

HII’s HRC 2025 CEI rating indicates the company forces employees to attend multiple, controversial trainings on gender identity, sexual orientation, transgender issues, and divisive racial ideology. The company provides gender transition guidelines for its employees and a specific benefits guide with a comprehensive explanation of transgender services funded by the company (1)(2). HII’s CEO publicly affirmed merit-based employment practices following the Trump administration’s executive orders concerning DEI. In a January 30, 2025 memo, CEO Chris Kastner stated: “We have never had quotas in our hiring or promotions at HII; hiring and promotion decisions must be based on merit. This is unchanged.” Kastner also announced that HII would cease tracking and reporting workforce representation of women and minorities, which was a previous federal contractor requirement (3). The company does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (4).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

Uses corporate reputation to support causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

HII’s CEO Chris Kastner is a member of the Business Roundtable and HII’s former CEO, Mike Petters, signed its 2019 Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation, which promotes stakeholder capitalism over traditional obligations to shareholders (1)(2). The company’s CEO, Chris Kastner, signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge, which includes a commitment to promote DEI through bias education training in the workplace, strategize on DEI programs/initiatives with other signatories, and engage boards of directors when developing and evaluating DEI strategies (3)(4). The company scored a 85 out of 100 on the 2025 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a political stakeholder group (5)(6). The company scored a 80 out of 100 on the 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a political stakeholder group (7)(8).

Criteria:

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

HII’s HRC 2025 CEI rating indicates the company covers transgender related costs for its employees and their children, including paid short-term leave, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, chest surgeries, genital surgeries, medical visits and lab monitoring, travel and lodging. By allowing a political stakeholder group to dictate operations, the company increases health care costs and risks dividing employees, alienating customers and harming shareholders (1)(2). Otherwise, there are no publicly known cases of the company using corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies (3).

Criteria:

Uses corporate political actions and/or financial contributions for ideological, non-business purposes.

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

HII has not used its PAC donations or lobbying for ideological purposes (1)(2)(3). HII does not use funds for electioneering communications and restricts funding given to 501(c)(4) organizations to purposes not related to elections. HII prohibits contributions to organizations “formed under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code and does not contribute to “Super PACs”. HII employees may voluntarily contribute personal funds through HIIPAC. From its Political Engagement Disclosure: “HIIPAC makes political contributions in a bipartisan manner based on alignment with established criteria and our company values.” The company does not spend money or participate in campaigns that support or oppose ballot measures or referendums in certain states (4).