Washington – Under pressure to revitalize his administration, President Bush reshuffled his economic team Tuesday with a new budget chief who is highly regarded on Capitol Hill and promised more changes ahead. He also named a new trade representative.
Bush chose Rob Portman, a former six-term Republican congressman from Ohio who now serves as trade representative, to head the Office of Management and Budget, putting him at the heart of White House decisionmaking.
Hailed by Democrats and Republicans alike, Portman’s nomination may help calm GOP anxieties about administration missteps. Portman is a close friend of Bush’s and has a reputation as a skilled communicator about the economy, which will be a central theme for the November congressional elections.
The president tapped Portman’s deputy, Susan Schwab, to move up and replace her boss as the administration’s top foreign trade negotiator.
Tuesday’s changes were set in motion by the promotion of Joshua Bolten as Bush’s chief of staff from his old job as budget director. Bush said Bolten, who moved into his new office last Friday, has a mandate to shake things up.
