The money was earmarked for the two sites in the 2005 budget but frozen as the Pentagon considered whether there were cheaper ways to destroy the deadly munitions.

In the memo, Undersecretary of Defense Michael W. Wynne asks project managers at the sites to develop budgets that will move the programs forward with a goal of meeting an international treaty deadline.

Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, a Kentucky-based watchdog organization, called the decision “a complete turnaround.”

Under the international treaty, ratified by the Senate in 1997, the weapons stockpiled at eight sites across the country must be destroyed by 2012.

The Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond, Ky., and the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Pueblo, Colo., are the only sites where disposal facilities have not already been constructed.

The military earlier this year said it was studying other ways to destroy the weapons, including moving them to other facilities. Wynne’s memo doesn’t take that option off the table, but it asks project managers not to consider the possibility “at this time.”

“It sounds like complete capitulation to me,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a vocal advocate for Blue Grass.

An amendment McConnell helped tack onto a “must-pass” spending package would force the Pentagon to release money frozen in past budgets and report bimonthly on the status of the programs. The package is expected to pass the Senate this week and will then be reviewed by a conference of lawmakers from the House and Senate.

In the memo, Wynne asks project managers to indicate what the sites will need in the 2007 budget to “allow this effort to proceed forward successfully,” and consider what is necessary to meet the “100 percent destruction deadline.”

Both requests are good indications that the projects will be kept in motion, “whether or not 2012 is achievable,” Williams said.

Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., praised Williams and his group and said in a statement he and McConnell “will continue to hold DOD’s feet to the fire on this important matter.”

Lawmakers in Washington have been agitating loudly to force the Pentagon to move forward at both sites and stop studying the transportation issue.

“I am pleased to see the Department of Defense come full circle on this issue. Destroying the chemical weapons stockpiles in our own backyards is absolutely vital to homeland security,” said Rep. Ben Chandler, a Democrat whose district includes Blue Grass.

Last month, the Pentagon released about $70 million to the sites, enough to lift a stop-work order in Colorado and allow progress to inch forward in both states while cost-cutting measures were considered.