Secretary of the Treasury
Snow was nominated as secretary of the Treasury by President George W. Bush on January 13, 2003, and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
In July and August 2003, Snow and his colleagues, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, took a bus across the country on their Jobs and Growth Tour, aimed at promoting the benefits of the Bush Administration's tax cuts.
In May 2004, it was revealed that Snow's brokers had bought $10 million of debt issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in February 2003, on the day and day after Snow was sworn into office as treasury secretary. Snow claimed this was done without his knowledge. When Snow found out, he divested the debt holdings. A Treasury ethics lawyer found that the holdings did not represent a conflict of interest but had the potential to do so in the future.
In January 2005, The Washington Post quoted a senior administration official as saying that Mr. Snow could "stay as long as he wants, provided it's not very long."
On May 26, 2006, Snow announced that he would resign effective July 3. He said the White House would make an official statement the following week. On May 30, it was formally announced that Snow would leave this position. On this same day, it was announced that President George W. Bush had nominated Henry Paulson, CEO of Goldman Sachs, to replace Snow.
Snow was forced to resign when it was uncovered that Snow failed to pay income taxes on the $24 million of loan forgiveness he received while CEO of CSX Corporation. Bush stated publicly that he wanted a "new face" to head the Treasury Dept., even though the stock market grew 40% during Snow's tenure as secretary.
