i'm john berman. >> i'm zoraida sambolin. >>> the word of the day in washington, closed. the federal government is shutting its door. now the congress has been unable to reach a deal to keep it government. the government has been shutdown 4 1/2 hours. the clock is ticking as we are on the air and there is an impasse here. joe johns is live in washington with us this morning. joe, we haven't seen this in 17 years. you've been you believe, i believe, about 24 hours following it all for us. give us a little synopsis of what happened. >> reporter: hope springs eternal that this will not take too long to resolve, but it could. house and senate and white house could not agree on a spending proposal to keep the government operating because a faction of republicans in the house want to undermine president obama's health care law. this back and forth on capitol hill went slightly past midnight to about 1:00 a.m., ended with the house approving a request