The Hill News

The national debate over bullying has moved to Capitol Hill, with House Democrats introducing legislation aimed at preventing children from tormenting their peers.

The legislation arrives as Mitt Romney, the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, is under fire for alleged bullying in high school. According to The Washington Post, Romney helped pin down and lop the hair off of a presumed gay student while attending a prestigious Michigan prep school in the mid 1960s.

The Democrats' legislation, sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), is aimed at preventing such episodes, while also providing help to the victims of those incidents. The bill authorizes up to $182 million in Justice Department grants over the next four years to fund education, prevention and intervention programs targeting bullying.

"There are solutions to bullying," Jackson Lee said Wednesday. "We in America owe our children the national statement that we care for them."

Dozens of House Democrats have endorsed federal efforts to fight bullying, including Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the Democratic whip.

Appearing on Capitol Hill alongside Jackson Lee, Lee Hirsch, the director of the film "Bully," said the problem is so sweeping and pervasive that Congress should intervene. 

"We cannot just solely leave it up to districts and states at this point. We've got to have a national framework," he said. "We have, as a nation, collectively grieved far too often. … We are literally at the tipping point."

Romney on Thursday was forced to defend himself in the wake of the Post story, saying he doesn't remember the haircutting incident but also conceding he "did some dumb things" in high school.

"If anyone was hurt by that or offended by that, obviously, I apologize," Romney said on the “Kilmeade & Friends” radio show. "But overall, high school years were a long time ago."