Thursday on Capitol Hill, several Republican senators joined health officials from Southern states in urging Congress to quickly reauthorize the Ryan White CARE Act.

Congressional leaders had hoped to renew the act months ago. But regional disagreements -- particularly the question of whether the South should receive a greater portion of federal funding than in the past -- have delayed its passage. Southern lawmakers and AIDS activists have long complained that the act's current spending formulas shortchange the region.

"The South's epidemic is real," Evelyn Foust, North Carolina's director of HIV prevention and care, said at a Washington press conference. "We have to prioritize those areas of the country that need help now."

In May, a Senate committee passed a version of the act that would start to shift some of its approximately $2 billion a year away from large metro areas and toward Southern and rural areas. This brought objections from officials in New York, California and elsewhere, who said their states would lose tens of millions of dollars while HIV/AIDS remains concentrated in large cities.

House and Senate lawmakers are negotiating a compromise, and staffers are optimistic that they reauthorization can be finalized before Congress adjourns at the end of October. But if the act is not renewed by that time, it will likely have to wait until 2008, advocates said on Thursday.

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