Tillis: Hand-washing policy should be up to businesses

A clip of U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis talking about deregulation extending to restaurant bathrooms has gone, ahem, viral.

Posted 6:27 p.m. Feb 3, 2015 — Updated 6:43 p.m. Feb 3, 2015

Mark Binker

RALEIGH, N.C. — Well, that's one way to get a video clip to go, ahem, viral.

Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis was winding up a talk to the Bipartisan Policy Center earlier this week when talk turned to deregulation.

Tillis recalled how, as he was sitting in a coffee shop, he had been challenged on whether he would take his deregulatory philosophy so far as to not require food service employees to wash their hands after using the bathroom.

"I don't have any problem with Starbucks if they choose to opt out of this policy if they post a sign saying, 'We don't require our employees to wash the hands after leaving the restroom,'" Tillis said. "The market will take care of it."

To be clear, it sounds like Tillis fully endorses hand washing and believes any business that opts out of the policy would soon find itself going out of business. However, outlets ranging from the Washington Post to the Chicago Sun-Times have worked themselves into a lather over the two-minute clip.

If you need it, here's what the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has to say about washing your hands.

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