Bipartisan federal lawmakers on Monday pushed a bill that would allow taxpayers to wipe every tax and state-mandated surcharge from gas and electric bills off their federal taxable income – a hard-charging response to years of runaway utility bills in New Jersey and New York.

“People are fed up with opening their utility bills and seeing line after line of extra charges that keep pushing the cost higher,” Congressman Jeff Van Drew (R-2nd Dist.) said April 20.