Utah Legislature: School vending machine bill fizzles

SALT LAKE CITY — It put up a good fight, but the bill that would regulate vending machine food in schools is dead.

The Senate Education Committee voted 4-2 to kill an amended version of SB49, sponsored Sen. Pat Jones, D-Holladay. Several committee members, when voting no, alluded to comments made during the public input session from Peter Cannon, who said he lived in Berlin during the Cold War and called the bill communistic. "I can't believe we want to dictate what people eat," he said.

Sen. Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, said, "I feel like we're taking the responsibilities away from Mom and Dad."

Go to http://le.utah.gov/~2010/htmdoc/sbillhtm/SB0049S04.htm to view the last version of the bill.

— Amy K. Stewart