Rep. Pat Jones killed her own school-vending machine bill Tuesday, saying the "well-funded soft drink industry" effectively stymied her attempt to get more nutritional foods into elementary schools.

Jones, D-Cottonwood Heights, said lobbyists and other legislators had amended and substituted HB47 to the point that "it is no longer my bill anymore . . . has no resemblance of my intention."

Jones started out trying to say that vending machines in elementary schools could only carry "healthy" foods — like fruits and milk. Only a few elementary schools have vending machines accessible to students, and Jones argued that her's was a preventive measure, as some school districts are earning hundreds of thousands of dollars off vending machines in junior and senior high schools.

But conservative Republicans didn't like that alternative, saying local school officials should be able to make their own decisions about healthy food and vending machines.

So Jones' bill was held while she met with PTA officials and came up with an amendment that said if a local school board doesn't adopt a vending machine policy for elementary schools, then the fall-back position of her restricting bill takes effect.

But Republicans didn't like that either, further amending her bill. In earlier debate, Jones complained that her bill basically did nothing. It was again held on the House calendar.

Rather than let her bill go forward, she decided to kill it Tuesday.

But even when she tried to do that, Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, rose to ask for a point of order, saying she shouldn't be allowed to speak on the issue any more. House Speaker Marty Stephens, R-Farr West, allowed Jones to speak. And then most of the House Republicans remained silent, when Democrats and a few others in a voice vote killed HB47.

"This should have been an easy bill," she said. "it is only six lines long" and she's worked three years to get it into a form that does something and is acceptable to most legislators. But the soft drink industry, which provides free drinks to the House and Senate kitchens for lawmakers during the session, decided "to fight this bill wholeheartedly," she said.