Lawmakers, Industry Advocates Avert Misguided Ban on Keys in Minnesota

On June 10, 2025, the Minnesota House and Senate passed HF 4, the state’s annual budget measure, which not only averted a government shutdown but also reversed an environmental law provision banning the sale of metal keys – in a triumph for common sense.

The move came as a relief across affected industries, not just lock and key manufacturers and locksmiths, but also hardware stores, housing and construction, auto and motorcycle dealers, the boating and ATV industries and others.

Minnesota’s 2023 law restricted the lead and cadmium content to essentially zero for certain products like cookware and children’s toys in order for them to be sold in the state. While intended to address sources of lead exposure in children, the law included an unnecessarily broad range of products, banning the sale or distribution of mechanical keys due to the tiny amount of lead found in brass, the metal alloy essential to manufacturing keys and lock cylinders.

Since then, the far-ranging effect of including these products – making new keys (and thus keyed locks) completely unavailable to Minnesotans – became very clear. Minnesota State Senate Assistant Majority Leader Grant Hauschild (DFL-03) and State Rep. Josh Heintzeman (R-6B) introduced bipartisan legislation in January to simply remove keys from the list, which was later included and passed as part of the Senate budget measure.

The Security Industry Association (SIA) led a security industry request to House and Senate conferees negotiating a final agreement on the budget urging lawmakers to include this provision, also helping explain the issue in the Duluth News Tribune.

Despite intense opposition from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, under the bipartisan agreement in HF 4, keys will be exempt from the current requirements for three years, after which the lead or cadmium content will be limited to 1.5%, matching the California standard for brass used in keys that is widely adopted for many industry products. Keys and locks that are already in use will not be subject to the new limits, and enforcement will be strictly on new products once the law takes effect.

SIA commends Sen. Hauschild, Rep. Heintzeman and House and Senate leaders for ensuring this important issue – potentially every family in Minnesota – was addressed with a workable solution.