From the Miami Herald

TALLAHASSEE — For all you skeptics, here’s proof the Legislature has got your back:

Sen. Victor Crist, a Tampa Republican, is pushing legislation to require restaurants to supply toilet paper in every restroom stall. He has heard the no-paper complaint enough from female relatives.

The final straw, he says, was when he walked into the restroom of a Chinese restaurant in Tampa last year. It had no soap, no running water and the toilet wouldn’t flush. Then he saw the chef walk out of the bathroom.

‘The next day at the office, I said to the guys, `We’re doing a bill,’ ” Crist said.

His colleagues approved the bill unanimously Monday in a Senate committee. It would codify standards of sanitation into law — mandating antibacterial soap, toilet paper and cleanable fixtures.

Crist says it’s important in preventing food-borne illnesses. ”It’s not a pretty issue,” he said. “No one really wants to discuss it.”

Restaurants must follow standards based on state Department of Health rules, but Crist wants it in statute because he says the agency that inspects restaurants hasn’t been paying enough attention to the bathrooms. A 2005 audit showed the state didn’t inspect enough restaurants to satisfy the law.

Carol Dover, a lobbyist for the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, said Crist’s experience is the “exception to the rule.”

She added the problem is not standards, but the manpower given to the state to enforce restroom sanitation.

”The real issue is that there aren’t enough inspectors,” Dover said. “That’s where things are falling through the cracks.”

(emphasis mine)