One-Minute Speeches: Current House Practices







Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress



Recognition for one-minute speeches (commonly called “one minutes”) in the House of
Representatives is the prerogative of the Speaker. A period for one minutes usually takes place at
the beginning of the legislative day after the daily prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, and approval
of the previous day’s Journal. During this time, Representatives ask unanimous consent to
address the House for one minute on a topic of their choice. In addition, one minute speeches are
often permitted after legislative business ends, but before special order speeches begin.
The rules of the House do not provide for one-minute speeches. Instead, one minutes have
evolved as a unanimous consent practice of the chamber. During one-minute speeches, Members
must abide by the rules of the House, the chamber’s precedents, and the “Speaker’s announced
policies,” in that order. The term “Speaker’s announced policies” refers to the Speaker’s policies
on certain aspects of House procedure, such as recognition for one minutes.
Representatives seeking recognition for one minutes sit in the first row on their party’s side of the
chamber. From the chair’s vantage point, Republican Members sit on the left side of the chamber
and Democratic Members on the right side. The chair moves from his right to left in recognizing
Members on each side of the aisle. When recognized by the chair, individual Members ask
unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend their remarks.
Permission is almost always granted. Members deliver one-minute speeches from the well of the
chamber. They are limited to one minute and cannot ask unanimous consent for additional time.
Instead of delivering a one-minute speech on the House floor, a Member may ask unanimous
consent to insert the speech in the House section of the Congressional Record.
Members need not reserve one-minute speeches in advance through their party’s leadership.
Nevertheless, the party leadership communication arms—known as the “Democratic Message
Group” and the “Republican Theme Team”—sometimes coordinate party Members to deliver one
minutes on the issue designated as the party’s daily message. These party Members usually
receive priority seating for recognition purposes.
This report will be updated if rules and procedures change.






Introduc tion ..................................................................................................................................... 1
Governing Authorities.....................................................................................................................1
Recognition for One-Minute Speeches...........................................................................................2
Coordination Role of Party Leadership...........................................................................................3
Delivering One-Minute Speeches....................................................................................................3
Inserting One-Minute Speeches......................................................................................................4
Various Uses of One Minutes..........................................................................................................4
Reform Proposals............................................................................................................................5
Letters to the Speaker......................................................................................................................5
Civility in the House of Representatives Report.............................................................................6
“Civility” Hearings..........................................................................................................................6
Author Contact Information............................................................................................................7






One-minute speeches (commonly called “one minutes”) provide one of the few opportunities for
non-legislative debate in the House, where debate is almost always confined to the pending 1
legislative business. Recognition for one-minute speeches is the prerogative of the Speaker. A
period for one minutes usually takes place at the beginning of the legislative day after the daily 2
prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, and approval of the previous day’s Journal. During this time,
Representatives ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute on a topic of their
choice. In addition, one minutes are often permitted after legislative business ends but before
special order speeches begin.
This report examines current House practices governing recognition for one-minute speeches, the
delivery of one minutes, and their insertion in the Congressional Record. Various uses of one
minutes and reform proposals are also discussed.

One-minute speeches are not provided for in the rules of House. Instead, they have evolved as a
unanimous consent practice of the chamber. Members must ask unanimous consent to address the
House for one minute (for more information, see “Delivering One-Minute Speeches,” below).
During one-minute speeches, Members must abide by the rules of the House, the chamber’s
precedents, and the “Speaker’s announced policies,” in that order. Relevant House rules include
those governing debate, decorum, and the Speaker’s power of recognition. House precedents 3
discuss how the chamber has interpreted and applied its rules. Under House precedents, for
example, individual Members can be recognized for a one-minute speech only once each 4
legislative day.
The term “Speaker’s announced policies” refers to the Speaker’s policies on certain aspects of
House procedure, such as decorum in debate, the conduct of electronic votes, and recognition for
one minutes and special orders. These policies are usually announced on the opening day of a
new Congress. The Speaker’s current policies on recognition for one minutes are those that were
first announced on August 8, 1984. These policies have been followed in each succeeding 5
Congress.

1 Under House Rule XVII, clause 1(b)(1), a Membershall be confined to the question under debate. Besides one-
minute speeches, special orders (usually every day; five to 60 minutes in length) and morning hour debates (on
Mondays and Tuesdays only; up to five minutes in length) provide other opportunities for non-legislative debate in the
House.
2 The Journal is the official record of the proceedings of the House.
3 These precedents are published in several parliamentary reference publications. For more information, see CRS
Report RL30787, Parliamentary Reference Sources: House of Representatives, by Richard S. Beth and Megan Suzanne
Lynch.
4 U.S. Congress, House, House Practice: A Guide to the Rules, Precedents and Procedures of the House, 108th Cong.,
1st sess. (Washington: GPO, 2003), “Consideration and Debate” chapter, sec. 50, p. 426.
5 The 1984 announcement of these policies is provided in Congressional Record, daily edition, vol. 130, Aug. 8, 1984,
p. H8552. The Speakers announced policies for the 110th Congress continued the application of these 1984 policies.
(continued...)






Recognition for one-minute speeches is the prerogative of the Speaker. Under his power of
recognition (House Rule XVII, clause 2), the Speaker decides when he will entertain unanimous
consent requests to address the House for one minute, and how many one minute speeches he will
allow.
According to the Speaker’s announced policies, the chair “reserves the right to limit one-minute
speeches to a certain period of time or to a special place in the program on any given day, with 6
notice to the leadership.” When pressing legislative business is before the House, the Speaker
may decide to limit the number of one-minute speeches, to postpone one minutes until after
legislative business, or to forego them altogether.
A period for one-minute speeches (hereafter referred to as “the one-minute speech period”)
usually takes place at the beginning of each legislative day after the daily prayer, the Pledge of
Allegiance, and approval of the previous day’s Journal. The Speaker determines the number of
one minutes permitted during this period. This number varies from day to day. The Speaker might
allow an unlimited number of speeches one day and then limit the number the following day (e.g.,
allow only 10 one minutes on each side of the aisle). The majority and minority leadership
usually receive advance notification of any limitations.
A majority party Representative appointed as “Speaker pro tempore” usually presides in the chair
during the one-minute speech period. In recent practice, the chair often announces how many one
minutes will be allowed before the one-minute speech period begins.
Representatives seeking recognition for one minutes sit in the first row on their party’s side of the
chamber. From the chair’s vantage point, Republican Members sit on the left side of the chamber
and Democratic Members on the right side. In recognizing Members for one minutes, the chair
observes the following announced policies of the Speaker:
“The chair will alternate recognition for one-minute speeches between majority and minority
Members, in the order in which they seek recognition in the well under present practice from
the Chairs right to the Chairs left, with possible exceptions for Members of the leadership 7
and Members having business requests.”
Because the chair moves from his right to left in recognizing Members, the Republican Member
seated closest to the center aisle is recognized first on the Republican side, and the Democratic
Member seated closest to the Speaker’s lobby is recognized first on the Democratic side.
Recognition alternates from majority to minority throughout the period for one minutes.
In addition to the one-minute speech period, Members can usually ask unanimous consent to
deliver a one minute after legislative business ends but before special order speeches begin.

(...continued)
See Congressional Record, daily edition, vol. 153, Jan. 5, 2007, p. H60.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.






Members do not have to reserve one-minute speeches in advance through their party’s 8
leadership. Nevertheless, the party leadership communication arms—known as the “Democratic
Message Group” and the “Republican Theme Team”—sometimes coordinate party Members to
deliver one minutes on the issue designated as the party’s daily message. On days when the
number of one-minute speeches is limited, these party Members usually receive priority seating
for recognition purposes (i.e., on the right side of the party’s first row). The daily message usually
presents the party’s views on specific legislation before the House or its position on a policy or
political issue.

When recognized by the chair, individual Members ask unanimous consent to address the House 9
for one minute and to revise and extend their remarks. Permission is almost always granted.
Members speak from the well of the chamber. They are limited to one minute and cannot ask
unanimous consent for additional time. When the chair announces that one minute has expired,
the Member can finish the sentence underway but must then stop speaking. The chair’s
calculation of time consumed during a one-minute speech “is not subject to challenge on a point 10
of order.”
When Members cannot finish their remarks in one minute, the permission to extend allows them
to complete their speech in writing in the Congressional Record. The undelivered portion of their
speech appears in a distinctive typeface. Permission to extend also authorizes Members to insert
extraneous material such as a newspaper article or a constituent letter during a one-minute
speech. The inserted material appears in a distinctive typeface.
Joint Committee on Printing regulations for publication of the Congressional Record provide that
“any extraneous matter included in any statement by a Member” be printed in the “Extensions of 11
Remarks” section of the Congressional Record but noted in the Members’ remarks. This
requirement is not always observed. A review of 10 one minutes containing extraneous matter
from January to July 1997 found that in each case the extraneous matter was printed in the House
section (not in the “Extensions of Remarks”) of the Congressional Record along with the one-
minute speech.
The Joint Committee on Printing’s regulations also require that one-minute speeches longer than
300 words “delivered during the morning business” (i.e., during the one-minute speech period at
the start of the day) be printed “following the business of the day.” In practice, these one minutes

8 By contrast, special order and morning hour speeches must be reserved in advance through each partys leadership.
9 Permission to revise gives Members the opportunity to make technical, grammatical, and typographical corrections
only. Permission to extend authorizes the insertion of material such as a newspaper article or constituent letter during
the one-minute speech.
10 House Practice, “Consideration and Debate chapter, sec. 50, p. 426.
11 “Extensions of Remarks” is the section where Members of the House can insert “a speech that was not actually
delivered on the floor orextraneous materials related to the subject under discussion,” with the Houses permission.
There are three sections in the daily Congressional Record: 1) the proceedings of the House; 2) the proceedings of the
Senate; and 3) theExtensions of Remarks.





usually appear in the House section of the Congressional Record immediately before the five-
minute special orders.

Instead of delivering a one-minute speech on the House floor, a Member may insert the speech in
the House section of the Congressional Record alongside the one minutes delivered on the floor
that day. The Representative asks unanimous consent to insert the one-minute speech in the
Congressional Record and yields back his time. The inserted speech is published in a distinctive
typeface.
The practical difference between inserting and delivering a one-minute speech is the speech’s
audience. Inserted one minutes are available to readers of the hard copy and online versions of
the Congressional Record. By contrast, delivered one minutes reach a larger audience through C-
SPAN’s televised coverage of House floor proceedings.

The unrestricted content and short length of one-minute speeches make them an attractive
communication tool for individual Members and the party leadership. In addition, the usual
position of one minutes at the start of day means they can be covered by broadcast news
organizations in time for evening news programs.
Individual Members often use one minutes to share information with colleagues such as
announcing a new bill they have introduced or explaining a floor amendment they will offer later
that day. In practice, these one minutes serve as a visual “Dear Colleague” letter. Representatives
also use one-minute speeches to deliver eulogies and tributes concerning individuals and
organizations in their congressional district. One minutes also provide Members with an
opportunity to express their views on bills, policy issues, and local, national, and international
events.
For junior Members, one-minute speeches provide a valuable debate opportunity. Representative th
Chabot highlighted this point in a 105 Congress one-minute speech on the importance of one
minutes: “As my colleagues know, a freshman or sophomore Member might sit at a committee
meeting for two hours before being able to pose one question to a witness. He or she, if lucky,
might get 30 seconds to debate a pending bill on the floor. One-minute speeches give these 12
Members and the people they represent back home a chance to be heard.”
Some Representatives have made one-minute speeches a regular part of their media and
communication strategy. By delivering one minutes, they reach a national audience of C-SPAN
television viewers and webcast users, including constituents. Some Members also disseminate
their one-minute speeches through other channels, such as mailing constituents a copy of the
speech printed in Congressional Record or providing local news organizations with a video press
release.

12 Rep. Steve Chabot, “Morning 1-Minute Speeches Serve Important Function,Congressional Record, daily edition,
vol. 143, Mar. 5, 1997, p. H727.





As mentioned earlier, the Democratic Message Group and the Republican Theme Team
sometimes use one-minute speeches as a vehicle for transmitting the party’s daily message. The
one-minute speech period provides a forum where different Members of the party can speak on
the designated theme to a national audience. This use of one minutes has been criticized by some th
Representatives and congressional observers. During a 104 Congress special order speech on
civility in the House, one Member stated that one minutes in the morning had “become theme-
team efforts just to excite and aggravate, to get sound bites for television, rather than a healthy 13
discourse on the issues.”

Breaches in decorum during one-minute speeches in the 104th and 105th Congresses have
prompted some reform proposals that range from eliminating one minutes to postponing them
until the completion of legislative business. These proposals have been advanced in letters to the
Speaker, in testimony at congressional hearings, and in the Civility in the House of
Representatives report that was prepared for the March 1997 bipartisan retreat of House th
Members. The 1999 report updated the data for the 105 Congress but did not contain 14
recommendations.

In August 1996, Representative Archer and former Representative Beilenson sent a letter to the
Speaker urging him to stop recognizing Members for one-minute speeches at the start of the day.
Signed by a bipartisan group of 50 Members, the letter proposed that one minutes only be
permitted after the completion of legislative business. The letter noted that one minutes had
increasingly become “a series sound-bite assaults often prepared not by Members themselves, but
by Republican and Democratic political staff who have found this format to be highly conducive 15
to the kinds of attacks that used to be reserved for campaign commercials.” Postponing one
minutes until after legislative business, the letter’s signatories argued, would reduce this manner
of using one minutes.
On September 5, 1996, the proposal in the letter was discussed at a joint hearing of the two
subcommittees of the House Rules Committee. Representative Archer testified that “Partisan and
poisonous 1-minute speeches unfavorably set the tone for our legislative business . . . . If we
move 1-minutes to the conclusion of the day, Members will be less inclined to focus on the
negative, politically charged messages, and 1-minutes would once again turn to their original

13 Rep. W.J. (Billy) Tauzin, remarks in the House, Congressional Record, daily edition, vol. 142, May 1, 1996, p. H
4375.
14 Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Civility in the House of Representatives (Philadelphia: Annenberg Public Policy Center,
1997), 108 p. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Civility in the House of Representatives: the 105th Congress (Philadelphia:
Annenberg Public Policy Center, 1999), 18 p.
15 The full text of this letter is reprinted in: U.S. Congress, House Committee on Rules, Congressional Reform hearings
before the Committee on Rules and joint hearings before the Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process and
Subcommittee on Rules and Organization of the House of the Committee on Rules, Building on Change: Preparing for ththnd
the 105 Congress, 104 Cong., 2 sess., July 17, 24 and Sept. 5, 12, 1996 (Washington: GPO, 1996), p. 262.





positive intent.”16 In separate testimony, Representative Beilenson noted that one-minute
speeches “often contain purposefully written, catchy phrases that make good sound bites.”
Moving one minutes to the end of the day, he argued, would “negate their usefulness to news 17
operations” and remove the incentive to envelop one-minute speeches in sound bites.
At the start of the 105th Congress, a letter advancing the same reform proposal was sent to the
Speaker and to the Minority Leader by Representatives Archer and Hamilton. A bipartisan group th
of 59 Members signed the letter. A similar letter was circulated in the 106 Congress.

Civility in the House of Representatives (hereafter referred to as Civility) examined the public’s
perception of rising incivility in the House and suggested ways to reduce both this perception and
actual breaches in decorum. The report point out that incivility was more likely to take place
during one-minute and special order speeches than during other periods of House floor
proceedings.
Civility recommended that the House either eliminate one-minute speeches or move these
speeches to another time of the day (i.e., to a time other than the start of the day). Holding one 18
minutes in the morning, the report argued, “can set a hostile tone for debate.” The report noted
the “advent of theme teams” and the concerns that some Members have about using one minutes 19
to communicate a party’s daily message. External factors such as “the rise of sound-bite
politics” and the incentive of media coverage were also cited as encouraging partisan attacks and 20
breaches of decorum during House floor debate.

The House Rules Committee’s Subcommittee on Rules and Organization of the House held
hearings on April 17, 1997, and May 1, 1997, to discuss issues raised in Civility. Dr. Kathleen
Hall Jamieson, author of Civility and dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the
University of Pennsylvania, testified along with several other congressional experts. By
coincidence, the April 17 hearing was interrupted by a House vote on the question of striking
unparliamentary words spoken in a one-minute speech. Witnesses and subcommittee members
referred to this incident throughout the May 1 hearing.
Civility’s recommendation that one-minute speeches be either eliminated or postponed until after
legislative business was examined at both hearings. Two alternative recommendations were
advanced in testimony. First, the idea of holding one-minute speeches only once a week was 21
proposed. Second, it was recommended that the Speaker allow one-minute speeches of a

16 Ibid., p. 258
17 Ibid., pp. 259-260.
18 Jamieson, Civility, p. 54.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid., p. 52.
21 Testimony of Dr. Stephen Frantzich, chairman of the Department of Political Science, U.S. Naval Academy, May 1,
1997.





“factual nature” in the morning and those of a “political nature” after the completion of legislative 22
business.
Both hearings explored reinstating the so-called “Oxford-style” debates—another Civility 23
recommendation—as a supplementary reform to changing House practices for one minutes. In
testimony on April 17, 1997, Dr. Jamieson recommended that “if we move or eliminate one-
minute speeches, we conventionalize Oxford debates as an additional forum available. In Oxford
debate, strong partisanship would be the rule, but in a environment in which the debate structure 24
increases the likelihood that one arbitrates evidence and doesn’t engage in personalities.”
Suggestions for improving future Oxford-style debates, such as giving these debates a different
name and allowing more Members to participate in them, were offered by witnesses at both
hearings.
The House Rules Committee held hearings on the 1999 report on April 29, 1999.
Judy Schneider
Specialist on the Congress
jschneider@crs.loc.gov, 7-8664


22 Testimony of Donald Wolfensberger, guest scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Apr.
17, 1997.
23 ThreeOxford-style debates, two hours of structured debate with four participants from each party, were held on an
experimental basis in the 103rd Congress.
24 Testimony of Dr. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Apr. 17, 1997.