(WASHINGTON, D.C.) -- North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham have reintroduced their bipartisan bill to crack down on fraud and illegal trade practices that damage the American textiles industry. Hagan said textiles and apparels have the highest fraud ranking of any industrial products in the United States.

“With North Carolina’s unemployment rate at an unacceptably high 10.4 percent, I refuse to allow one of my state’s biggest industries to be handicapped by an inability to enforce proper trade rules,” said Hagan, who is co-chair of the Senate Textile Caucus. "This bipartisan bill ensures our country has the resources needed to fight the fraud that undermines North Carolina textile mills. I look forward to working with Senator Graham and all of my colleagues to pass this pro-jobs bill as soon as possible.”

Sen. Graham called the Textile Enforcement and Security Act, "new and improved."

Some of the highlights of the bill were outlined in a release on Wednesday:

• Establish an electronic verification program that tracks yarn and fabric imports in countries operating under free trade agreements.
• Increase the number of textile and apparel verification specialists at the 15 largest U.S. ports that process textile and apparel imports.
• Increase textile staff at the Customs and Border Protection Agency headquarters and retarget them toward trade preference verifications. Headquarters staff has been significantly reduced over the last five years.
• Require the publication of a list of fraudulent actors in this field.
• Creates a centralized database for new importers and allows the Customs and Border Protection Agency to adjust bond requirements for high risk importers of textile and apparel goods.