	General Guidelines

Under House rules and precedents, opportunities to speak on the House floor about pending legislation are restricted and highly structured. Each floor manager usually, but not necessarily, yields to Members on his or her side of the aisle. Gaining Recognition to Speak Under Controlled Time

If a Member is not the floor manager but wishes to speak, the Member informs the floor manager on his or her side. Any time consumed by the Member yielded to is charged against the portion of time yielded originally by the manager to the Member who has been recognized. Debate When Time Is Not Controlled

In some procedural circumstances, debate time is not controlled by floor managers. Instead, Members gain time to speak by seeking recognition directly from the presiding officer. Most prominently, time for debating amendments can take place in the Committee of the Whole under what is known as the "five minute rule." Another Member (sometimes the floor manager defending the version of the bill reported by the committee of jurisdiction) can then be recognized for five minutes to speak against the amendment by standing and stating
I rise in opposition to the amendment.
House rules and precedents structure Members' opportunities to speak on the floor about pending legislation. Under some circumstances, Members arrange to speak on legislation by communicating with the leaders of the committee that reported the bill. Sometimes the arrangements can be made on the floor during the debate, and at other times they are made prior to floor consideration. The committee leaders from both sides of the aisle manage the consideration of a bill on the floor, under what is known as controlled time, by allocating the debate time among several Members.
In certain other procedural circumstances, most often when the House is amending legislation under an "open" special rule, legislators instead seek recognition to speak, usually for up to five minutes, directly from the presiding officer. A Member who has been recognized can yield to another during debate but continues to hold the floor; the time used by the Member yielded to is taken from the time allocated to the Member holding the floor.