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Hi everybody, Sherlockis in here. Welcome to another edition of Full Measure After Hours.

Today, a controversial spending practice in congress,

loathed by many taxpayers and banned by both parties, but it's now made a quiet comeback.

This Sunday, March 6th on Full Measure, we will be tackling a controversial topic,

very popular among viewers when I covered these stories as an investigative correspondent for CBS News.

Earmarks. Earmarks are grants of taxpayer money by members of congress,

without going through the normal budget process, competitive bidding, oversight.

And over the years, earmarks, by most accounts, really got out of control.

The leaders of both parties hand out the money to members so that they can earmark for pet projects

in their home districts, and they use that to wield power and authority over the members,

to get the members of their parties to vote the way the leaders want them to vote,

to exchange favors. And oftentimes, this has gotten members in trouble over the years.

Both Democrats and Republicans have gotten caught breaking the law, handing out these grants

of taxpayer money, millions upon millions of dollars in many cases for corrupt causes, fraud,

waste or abuse. For a little while at CBS News, I was assigned to do a weekly story looking into

an earmark. This was under the incredible executive producer at CBS at the time, Rick Kaplan,

who understood how popular these stories were when we did follow the money stories really on

...