NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville is on the list of federal agencies likely impacted by the on-going budget shutdown. The Republican chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Alabama’s U.S. Senator Richard Shelby says a quick end to the shutdown was "not probable." The federal government is expected to remain partially closed past Christmas Day in a protracted standoff over President Donald Trump's demand for money to build a border wall with Mexico. Trump's insistence on five billion dollars for the wall combined with negotiations with Democrats in Congress that are far from a breakthrough, even a temporary measure to keep the government running while talks continued seems out of reach until the Senate returns for a full session Thursday. The disruption has affected many government operations and the routines of eight hundred thousand federal employees.