ANNAPOLIS — A revised agreement to restore the Chesapeake Bay is speeding toward final passage, after a key committee rejected Maryland attempts to strengthen parts of the plan and voted Tuesday to forward it to bay-area leaders for their OK.

The agreement approved by the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Principals’ Staff Committee will chart the future for the multiyear, multibillion-dollar effort to improve the bay. Final approval by bay leaders at their Dec. 2 meeting at the National Aquarium in Baltimore is considered a formality, since the principals’ staff committee includes representatives of the governors and other signatories of the agreement, including the federal government.

The document unanimously approved Tuesday looks a bit different than the proposal that was released for pub

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