Today the House and Senate came to an agreemment on the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) budget, which includes the full requested funding to ensure a 2018 launch for the James Webb Space Telescope. The vote was a pretty comprehensive 70 to 30 in favour.

Fantastic news! :)

Somewhat oddly (but quite interestingly perhaps), there is no mention of this on the NASA website but there is an update about the Assembly Stand for the Telescope's Flight Optics:

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/webb-assembly-stand.html (link disappeared sometime late 2025 or early 2026, web archive link in substituted in).

More information will be available on the official site here: http://jwst.nasa.gov/

Lets hope that everything goes smoothly between now and launch in 2018!

Cover Image by NASA - https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html, Public Domain, Link