Today's headlines: From Federal Times, NextGov and more

In the news: GSA and stimulus spending; Stimulus and IT spending; Promotion for DHS cyber exec; Government and open-source software.

Here are some stories of interest from the day's news:

GSA readies for onslaught of stimulus spending
The General Services Administration's schedules contract program stands to benefit not just from the nearly $7 billion in direct appropriations to the agency, but also from appropriations to other agencies that could well be channeled through the agency’s pre-existing contracts, according to the Federal Times

Spared large cuts, IT stakeholders will lobby to restore stimulus funding
The Senate's compromise economic stimulus package has preserved much of the original measure's investments and incentives to spur adoption of electronic health records, although some stakeholders will still fight to restore cuts, NextGov reports.

Head of DHS cyber receives promotion
Federal News Radio reports that Michael Brown, assistant deputy director, Joint Interagency Cyber Task Force in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the deputy assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications in the Homeland Security Department's National Protection and Programs directorate, is being promoted to rear admiral upper-half.

News leak: Brown also is a winner of Federal Computer Week's 2009 Federal 100 award.

Group urges Obama on open-source software for feds
Information Week reports that a group of open source code practitioners has written a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to require wider adoption of open source code throughout the government.

On a related note, FCW recently reported that the Defense Department has created a site for open-source software developers who want to create software for DOD. Read the story and its comments here.