New US Treasury secretary Mr John Snow today pledged to advance a "pro-growth, pro-jobs agenda" during his tenure.
President George W. Bush yesterday named Mr Snow, chairman of railroad firm CSX Corp, as his new Treasury secretary and promised bold new measures to reinvigorate the US economy - and the stock market - before the 2004 re-election campaign.
Mr Snow told the president he was "both humbled and deeply honoured by your decision.
"Should the United States Senate confirm me, I look forward to joining your economic team to advance a pro-growth, pro-jobs agenda," he said
The Senate has to confirm Mr Snow's nomination, and White House officials expect he will be grilled about any government aid to his company, CSX.
Financial experts fear turning around the US economy is going to be difficult Mr Snow, with risks looming for a bigger budgetdeficit, the dollar and interest rates.
US Democrats have seized on the shake-up as evidence that Mr Bush's tax-cutting economic policies have hurt the economy.
Senate Democratic leader Mr Tom Daschle said: "It wasn't necessarily the people that he [Mr Bush] had in place in the last two years, it's the plan. Trickle-down economics doesn't work".