When a bill gets assigned to a committee that seems hostile to a bill, its supporters can try to get the bill transferred to a different committee. This is called a change of reference.

This can happen two ways:

• The chair of the more supportive committee can request this transfer by contacting the chair of the first, more unreceptive, committee.
• Much more rarely, the Speaker of the House or President Pro Tempore of the Senate can create a temporary committee that determines where the bill should go.