Region spared big cuts in budget compromise

Congress largely insulated the Washington region from $38 billion in federal budget cuts, allowing a plan to restore the Chesapeake Bay to move forward and appropriating $300 million to help ease traffic around military sites in Bethesda and Fort Belvoir. The $1.05 trillion budget deal struck late Friday night — for which details began to emerge Tuesday — saves many of the programs that the Republican-led House slashed in February.

The budget deal axes language that would have blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from carrying out its Chesapeake Bay cleanup program.