On February 12, White House Press Secretary Ronald L. Ziegler said President Nixon was in favor of the North and the South being treated equally on the issue of segregation, refusing to interpret his remarks as an endorsement of the Stennis amendment. Several days later, on February 18, the Senate voted 56 to 36 in favor of the Stennis amendment, Stennis afterward stating that the vote was "a landmark... a new gateway... a turning point." Stennis admitted he did not expect a difference in the temperament of the South, but that it could potentially lead to the North understanding the importance of the issue to southerners in having to maintain the same policy. Around the same time, Stennis sponsored an amendment requiring "equal treatment of schools segregated by law (de jure) and those segregated as a result of residential patterns (de facto.)" It was rejected by the Senate on April 1. In May, Stennis opined that the Supreme Court had dodged its duty by passing on the question of the legality or illegality of segregated schools outside of the South. Stennis said the question "must and should be decided as promptly as possible because a political decision is being made to continue the in integration efforts in the South but leave the other areas of the country virtually untouched." In June, as the Senate passed a $4.8billion education bill, it also defeated an amendment by Stennis to strike certain restrictions in an amendment by Senator Jacob K. Javits for aid to desegregating schools.