Thom Tillis on whether employees need to wash hands after bathroom use

Freshman Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, has some complaints about the heavy hand of regulation on businesses. The cleanliness of that hand might not bother him, though, given his comments at a Q&A Monday at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Tillis told a story from his time in the state legislature in North Carolina, when he was with someone at a Starbucks in his district, "and we were talking about certain regulations where I felt like 'maybe you should allow businesses to opt out.'"

The person he was with asked whether one of those opt-out regulations would include requiring employees to wash their hands after using the restroom. Tillis recalled, "I said, 'I don't have any problem with Starbucks if they choose to opt out of this policy as long as they post a sign that says "We don't require our employees to wash their hands after leaving the restroom."

Tillis did add, however, that the market would decide on the best policy, and any business that decided on a policy like that "would go out of business." His point was that there are certain rules that require common sense, not regulation.

His host joked that he might skip shaking Tillis' hand at the end of the Q&A.