Following months of negotiations, harangues and just plain selfishness, the Senate passed a revised version of The Ryan White Act. Named after the world's most famous AIDS victim, the act originally passed in 1990, securing federal funding for money-strapped HIV patients.

It goes without saying that the epidemic has since spread beyond urban hotspots such as New York City and Los Angeles into more rural areas. Southern and rural politicians thus insisted they needed more funding, threatening the balance for the aforementioned urban areas. Needless to say this didn't sit well with the city folk, leading to a Senatorial statemate. 365 Gay reports:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) had held up renewal of the act because, in its original form the reauthorization would have reduced federal grants to New York State. The measure also would have cut federal spending in California, Florida and Illinois. The money would have been redirected to rural states, mainly in the South.

Late Tuesday afternoon Clinton struck a deal with GOP leaders that would see a reduction in the cuts to the larger states while still giving more money to rural areas.