; hiring freeze (a) In general During the period described in subsection (b), the Secretary of Defense may not— (1) establish any new positions within the Department of Defense with responsibility for matters relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion; or (2) fill any vacancies in positions in the Department with responsibility for such matters. (b) Period described The period described in this subsection is the period— (1) beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act; and (2) ending on the date on which the Comptroller General of the United States submits to Congress the review of the Department of Defense diversity, equity, and inclusion workforce required by the report of the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate accompanying the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024. X General provisions A Financial matters 1001. General transfer authority (a) Authority To transfer authorizations (1) Authority Upon determination by the Secretary of Defense that such action is necessary in the national interest, the Secretary may transfer amounts of authorizations made available to the Department of Defense in this division for fiscal year 2024 between any such authorizations for that fiscal year (or any subdivisions thereof). Amounts of authorizations so transferred shall be merged with and be available for the same purposes as the authorization to which transferred. (2) Limitation Except as provided in paragraph (3), the total amount of authorizations that the Secretary may transfer under the authority of this section may not exceed $6,000,000,000. (3) Exception for transfers between military personnel authorizations A transfer of funds between military personnel authorizations under title IV shall not be counted toward the dollar limitation in paragraph (2). (b) Limitations The authority provided by subsection (a) to transfer authorizations— (1) may only be used to provide authority for items that have a higher priority than the items from which authority is transferred