Rather than mandating all restaurant employees to wash their hands after they finish using the bathroom, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina announced that he believes restaurants should be allowed to opt out of hand-washing policies.

On Tuesday, the GOP senator pushed his ideas about reducing government regulation in restaurants by getting rid of laws that require food servers to wash their hands after going to the bathroom.

"I was having this discussion with someon,e and we were at a Starbucks in my district and we were talking about certain regulations where I felt like maybe you should allow businesses to opt out," Tillis said, according to Houstania. "As a matter of fact I think this is one where I think I can illustrate the point. 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.' The market will take care of that."

When questioned about his stance on public health safety, Tillis told The Associated Press that businesses should "get to make that decision versus government."

According to the FDA, handwashing policies were put in place because "proper handwashing reduces the spread of fecal-oral pathogens from the hands of a food employee to foods," reports the Washington Post.

In addition, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that restaurants play a major role in the almost 20 million people who came down with food poisoning in 2014.

"Infected food workers are frequently the source of these outbreaks, often by touching ready-to-eat foods served in restaurants with their bare hands," states the CDC.

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