Amnesty or bust. Though not using those words, that's expected to be the message President Barack Obama will deliver in the border town of El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday.

Obama, according to unofficial reports, will argue that his administration has tightened America's borders and stepped up deportations, and that it is time for Congress to enact a "path to citizenship" for at least some of the estimated 11 million illegal aliens in this country.

This week the House of Representatives intends to continueefforts to address rising gas prices by improving domestic production. After passing a bill last week that requires the administration to conduct offshore lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and off the shores of Virginia, the bill, HR 1230, now goes to the Senate. Most Hill watchers believe the bill will not see the light of day due to the Democratic control of the Senate, even given the fact that the bill passed by a vote of 266-149. That vote includes the support of 33 House Democrats.

Florida lawmakers approved an education budget in the final hours of the legislative session that slashed money that pays for schools by nearly 8 percent, cutting funding by $542 per student.

Budget writers say they were left with few choices but to slash spending when faced with a $3.75 billion budget hole, and said they tried to shield education from the more severe cuts that hit other areas, such as prisons.

Florida taxpayers had such high hopes for the 2011 Legislature. With supermajorities in both houses and what Mike Haridopolos initially called the "most conservative" Senate in history, Gov. Rick Scott's smaller-government agenda appeared all but assured.

But to use baseball parlance, there were no home runs, a few scratch hits and lots of strikeouts at the Capitol.

While liberal groups like Progress Florida, predictably, had little positive to say about the session, the real rage was on the right.

With a white-knuckled grip, the old guard of energy producers, primarily the investor-owned utilities and the handful of companies that they do business with, are holding on to a business model that is outdated by its own fuel source and inching closer every day to resembling the bygone era of Ma Bell and regulated natural monopolies.