Name: Dr. James Benjamin Peake
Age: 63
Born: June 18, 1944; St. Louis, Mo.
Education B.S., United States Military Academy, 1966; M.D., Cornell University, 1972; graduate, U.S. Army War College, 1988.
War Service: Vietnam
Awarded: Silver Star, Bronze Star with "V" device, Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster
Other: former Army surgeon general with 40 years in military medicine; if confirmed, he will be the first general and first physician to hold the job

"The disability system is largely a 1945 product, 1945 processes, around a 1945 family unit. About everybody that has studied it recently said it is time to do some revisions."

When a veteran first applies for that compensation, a doctor conducts a physical to help determine how much money he or she deserves. Historically, VA doctors do most of those examinations. But increasingly they are being performed by QTC Management, the for-profit contractor that employed Peake as its chief operating officer from 2006 until now.

The company has a virtual lock on the expanding business of performing the physicals on veterans, which help determine how much they should get in disability checks from the VA.

To alleviate other possible conflicts of interest, Peake also told the Senate committee that he would divest stock holdings in more than 57 companies, many of them major pharmaceutical companies such as Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Bristol Myers, Medtronic, Wyeth and Pfizer, that either currently or might do business with the VA, said a Senate staffer who demanded anonymity because the information had not been made public.

Even the administration's most ardent critic on the committee, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., plans tough questions but expects him to be confirmed.

"The problems at the VA are huge, and lives are at stake," she said. "I hope General Peake's the guy for the job, because this administration has failed to plan and failed to be honest and we simply can't waste any more time when it comes to getting this right."